Hannah

March 29, 2015 by Hannah

Gentle Mastery

“If Jesus rode down your street and pride stood in the way of your praise, would you lay it down before Him?” – from today’s sermon

To say Jesus thought outside the box would be the understatement of two millennia.

He needs a donkey. Does He dial 1-800-IDONKEY? Oh no. He sends two disciples to gently seize one. “It’s OK,” He tells them. “If anyone asks you about it, just tell them the Master needs it.”

Jesus never said that following Him would never involve awkward situations. But He certainly anticipated the potential awkwardness and gave them a ready-and abundantly true-answer. After all, He was the Master, and by gum, He needed a donkey!

This is the paradox: Jesus is Master of all, yet He comes gently.

He comes with an open heart, seeking those with open hearts. He could claim all; He could charge into our lives with all the force of a Roman potentate, seizing authority.

Instead, He comes peacefully, on a donkey, inviting us to share in the peace and joy which only He can offer.

As the preacher shared this morning about the people of that time: “They didn’t know what kind of Messiah was coming, but they knew what kind of Messiah they wanted.”

Perhaps I pictured a God who would take over my life by force; perhaps it’s tempting to ignore Christ’s gentle invitation because so many other vain things cry louder and tug harder.

Then may my false expectations be swept up into this true One-this one who rides gently on a donkey, glorifying His Father at every step, ushering in salvation to His people.

Pride, fear-whatever it is that’s keeping you and me on the outskirts of this crowd-let’s throw it away. Let’s take our cloaks, let’s take our throats, let’s offer everything to our Master!!

These thoughts were set in motion by today’s Palm Sunday sermon. As you left church this morning, did any insights from your service start nurdling around in your subconscious?

March 28, 2015 by Hannah

Seamless Reality

When Christ was being crucified, the soldiers at His feet were bartering over his clothes. Picture the scene: you’re wheezing, you feel your life ebbing out of you, and the words you hear below you are, “Aww, come on now–don’t be such a pig–throw the dice again.”

A prostitute reduces a man to a loaf of bread; your executioners reduce you to a suit of clothes.

One of those articles of clothing always piqued my interest: it was a seamless undergarment. My fascination grew as I learned that the technology to weave such a garment had only lately been discovered. The fact that Jesus owned this helps confirm the date He walked the Earth.

But this garment has other reasons for making me stop and consider.

I see it as a symbol.

You see, the longer I live, the more I realize how seamless Christ’s reality is. We often talk about being “one with nature.” By that we mean embedding ourselves in a haunting forest, losing ourselves in a gorgeous sunset, or restoring our sense of wonder by watching waves crash on a desolate shore.

But all of these experiences point us to a deeper oneness–a oneness with our Creator God. He offers not only salvation, not only purpose, not only peace–He offers Himself. He Himself is the path through which all of these means of grace enter our lives.

If we accept Him, as we accept a suitor, we accept His daily presence. We welcome Him to know us and we long to know Him.

It’s how love begins to make sense. Paul spoke about longing for the Philippians with the affection of Christ Jesus. This verse, like so many I’ve read but never heard explained, took me aback. “The affection of Christ Jesus” what is this?

Then I thought of those times when my heart would inexplicably be filled with a sloshing, overflowing kind of love. I don’t just mean the warm fuzzies when a certain sweetheart’s name is mentioned. I mean when you’re a camp counselor and you’re utterly exhausted, but as you lay on your bunk trying to fall asleep, your heart expands like the Grinch’s just a few degrees because God is pouring so much stinkin’ love into it that your poor, cramped heart has to expand in order to fit it all. Of course, it’s a losing battle. Your heart can’t possibly contain that much love. The love God gives you come spilling out, pouring into the lives of those around you.

It’s so obvious to you that this wasn’t love that you manufactured that you have to laugh. It’s because God gave you the new wineskins of a new heart that there’s any way your heart isn’t bursting within you. He knew what He was doing when He gave you that new heart, that heart of flesh instead of stone.

He’s the source of all love. He enables us not only to reach out in love to those who are inherently lovable–the 4-year-old singing a ditty to herself as she does a jigsaw puzzle or the grandfather who wants to tell you a funny story–He equips us to offer love to those who are inherently unlovable–the sullen, pimply teenager who publicly insults us or the frenemy who’s gotten just close enough to us to betray our secrets.

I used to be afraid to love because I was so afraid of losing what I loved. As a child, I would sometimes wake up in a panic, thinking that my parents may have died in the night. When I was able to surrender them to Christ, I found peace in loving them. I didn’t claw after them, demanding that God let us live the exact same timeframe on earth so that I would never need to live without them. Instead, I gave them to God. I knew He loved them more deeply and more closely than I ever could. It was by His grace that I could love them, and I prayed that He would help me love them as He did.

I used to be afraid of having a crush. After all, if I had even the inkling of romantic love in my heart, wasn’t that taking away my love for my Savior? I saw love as a zero sum game: that any love allotted to one person in my life inherently limited my love for another. I thought I was applying Scripture well to think that because Paul warned that while a single woman could pursue God wholeheartedly, a married woman had to stop to please her husband, I shouldn’t even desire to be in a relationship with a guy.

But what I’ve been learning is that all my love–from my love for a cat to my love for my sister–can draw me closer to God. God does not sit in Heaven peevish because “in addition” to loving Him, I also love my best friend. Godly love–true love–enhances my love of Christ. I see every good thing in my life as a gift from Him. He is the true love sung of in the Twelve Days of Christmas. He is pouring down gifts of love into my life, wooing my heart to His.

It wasn’t until recently that I started understanding how it was possible to grow in your love with Christ. I thought you just loved Him wholeheartedly and that was the end of it. But if my heart expands, I’m able to love Him more. And when I love Him more, I begin to realize how much love He has been showing me all along.

For years, I’ve had the verses, “Daughter of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” (Song of Solomon 2:6). I always thought of it exclusively in reference to the romantic love between a man and a woman. Essentially, I interpreted it to mean that I shouldn’t try to force romantic love to grow; I should wait for God to plant it in the heart of the one I was supposed to love as a husband and in my own heart.

But recently I’ve started to see that this holds true for Christ’s relationship with me, too. One of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever read is the story of Emma. Here you have this headstrong, impulsive girl who often thoughtlessly insults people or meddles in their affairs. But a close family friend is always helping her see how she should change, gently correcting her and inviting her to show more love to those around her. Her response is often indignant. What right does he have to correct her? Why can’t he just mind his own business?

As the story unfolds, we realize why he can’t just leave her alone. While he is a family friend who has the entire family’s best interest at heart, Emma–foolish, impulsive Emma–has captured his heart. He does not force his love on her; even though for years he’s known that he loved her. He does not speak of it, until she is ready. Until she invites her love and is mature enough to begin to understand it.

I see this in Christ’s love for me. When I was a child, the main way He expressed His love for me was by correcting me. And oh brother, there were plenty of things to correct! At times I grew indignant over His treatment of me: why couldn’t He just let me be who I was? Why must He always be trying to change me?

But the reason was the same as why Mr. Knightley couldn’t simply turn away from Emma and leave her to her own devices: He loved me.

Jesus could see through the gangliness of my growing soul to see who I could be.

His expressed His love for me mainly as correction until that day when I turned to Him and said, “I think I love you.”

Those words were enough for Him to show me how, from the earliest moment when my name had appeared in His mind, He had loved me.

Frankly, His passion for me unnerved me. How could a man so good, so pure, so holy love a creature like me? I was more comfortable with him being on a plane above me, correcting my stupidity from a distance. If I kept my distance, I might not ruin or contaminate Him.

But He desired a close relationship with me–the chance to share our deepest thoughts with one another.

Those verses from the Song of Solomon were for us: He did not offer this love to me until I was ready to understand it.

This love of His for me has changed who I am. I had been surrendering to fears right and left–fears about career, about family, about relationships. Adulthood seemed to usher me into isolation: as a child, I was told what to do. As a young adult, I could often ask others for advice and follow it. But here, as an adult, I was expected to be self directed, confident, sure. But I was anything of those things. I longed to have someone I could talk things over with–someone who was not on the outside of my life, but who I was living it with side-by-side.

I wanted to know and to be known.

At the same time, I realized that this desire went so much deeper than the desire for a boyfriend or even an earthly husband. I knew myself well enough to know that my analytical brain could pick any person to pieces and find that the absolute love I wanted to offer would shrink from them at some point or another. I also knew that my flaws, my sin patterns, my selfishness would at some point alienate me from even the most loving of men.

I needed a relationship so solid, so unflinching that every other relationship in my life could be based upon it.

So many apologetics talks are based on scientific or historical evidence. But the deepest evidence I found for Christ was my desire to love someone who was perfect, someone who was all powerful, someone I could worship unflinchingly and talk to incessantly.

Once I discovered the One my soul loves, there is no going back.

The verse that more than any other revealed to me that this Man existed and He longed to love me as I longed to love Him was: “Perfect love casts out all fear.”

I didn’t know what it meant, but it kept drawing me to it like a techie to an Apple demo. What did it mean? Why did I feel this inner thrill just trying to understand it?

I started seeing that my fear often hinged on being known. A favorite song I’d once heard on the radio asked, essentially, “Would you love me if you really knew me?” It was dishonest to not reveal to someone who you really were, but the fear was that if you actually showed him your inner soul, he would reject you because of what he found.

But here was a river of hope: God might actually love me–in spite of knowing me.

I thought I had to hide all the junk in my life before someone could ever look at me. But I shrank from this approach because I loved honesty. I longed to be completely honest with someone: to not feel as if they were only accepting me because they saw the parlor of my life instead of the storage unit overflowing with useless junk. I knew I needed help, I longed to be in a close relationship, but I also instinctively shrank from being in a closer relationship if that meant I would hurt the other person.

Glimmers of hope started appearing in my life. I started seeing that those who truly loved me often loved me in spite of myself–in spite of my inherent unloveliness. When I fell, hit my head, and developed a terrific shiner, my family and friends didn’t shy away from me because I looked like an inverse panda bear. They loved me anyway.

When I struck out in angry words against my mother, saying things I meant only in the heat of selfishness and arrogance, she forgave me.

If these precious people could love me in spite of myself, perhaps God could, too. If these people could truly know me–know my weirdness, my past, my insecurities–and yet love me, perhaps the One who knew all could also love me.

I started seeing that the only thing keeping me from walking more closely with Christ was my own dwarfed soul–dwarfed by my love for sin.

If I could surrender my mess to Him, if I could trust that He would accept me, if I could turn my focus from my own shortcomings to His abundance–I could love Him.

In the most bizarre set of circumstances I’ve ever experienced, Jesus gives me the love to love Him.

I can’t love Him on my own, even though I desire to. My stupid soul can’t comprehend Him. But my desire to be in a relationship with Him is enough. He supplies every lack in me. Just as in Michelangelo’s painting, His strong and loving hand stretches toward my limp and languid one. But the sign of life in me–my ability to turn my eyes toward Him–He can see the welcome that is here and rushes to greet it.

Every love story I’ve ever heard has become the story of Christ’s love for me.

Most gloriously of all, I am not the only one who can experience this love.

In the most fantastically ironic truth of all time, Christ offers Himself in this pure and selfless way to each person who has ever lived and ever will live.

He offers to know you–and to love you. To see through the cloud of doubt, pain, and regret to who you really are. That is the person He loves: not just the person you wish you were, not just the person you thought you could be–but the person He is helping you to be.

This is love.

This is Christ.

March 28, 2015 by Hannah

Confessions of a Control Freak

I didn’t even know I was a control freak until I met Jesus.

I thought I was a pretty laid-back, easygoing gal.

But then Jesus asked me to do something I thought was bizarre. And I ignored Him, because I didn’t want to, I thought it was weird, and I thought it wouldn’t be “balanced.”

You see, I was worshipping at the altar of balance.

What that amounted to was that if Jesus asked me to do something that jived with my view of what life should be, I’d obey. If not, I’d either outright tell Him no or else shelve it on my burgeoning bookshelf of good intentions–which amounted to the same thing.

But He kept inviting me into a deeper relationship with Him. He kept bringing people into my life who had some kind of supernatural ability to minister to others, create, love, and honor Him.

“I want that,” I kept saying. “I really want that.” But it seemed like an impossible goal, like a 2^nd grader wanting to lead a mission to Mars over recess.

So, I sought balance. Maybe I couldn’t be a great follower of God, but at least I’d be a balanced one. I tried making all kinds of goals for myself and being all systematic about meeting them.

But I kept coming up short, forgetting why I’d even set out to do these things. And I kept getting the same thing: a yearning for something more.

Knowing my need for messages to be spelled out in words, God gave those words to my friend to share with me. In a 2-hour conversation that drove my worship of balance up the wall, my friend Juanesa asked me if I was obeying God. She had shared about how God was giving her dramatic plays to write down and perform; the words were pouring out of her. Her belief was that if we obey God, He will continue giving us that gift. But if we don’t use it, He’ll give it to someone else.

Her words started a fresh train of thought in my mind, a train that ran on fuel from many conversations with many people, confusion, dysfunction, purpose–a train that ultimately helped me see that the most basic cry of my heart isn’t for balance–it’s for obedience.

As long as I worshipped balance, I was at the center of my life.

If I was willing to obey God wholeheartedly, balance would no longer be my god: He would.

He prepared my heart for this. For as long as I can remember, I’ve longed for someone in my life who I can turn to for advice on any topic and who gives me the correct answer every time. They don’t shrug off my question as unimportant or stroke their chin and say, “Hmmm… I’ve never thought about that.”

Think about what happens when Jesus is asked about taxes when He’s standing in the temple courts. He doesn’t say, “Oh dear…. I think that may violate separation of church and state.”Oh no: He’s ready with an answer: He’s already thought through this one to the depth where mountains grow from.

That’s what I love about Jesus: He’s always thinking things through deeply. He’s not into flippant answers.

And because He is so fully convince of truth and because He is trained in eloquent wisdom, He, as the people said, “teaches with authority, not as the teachers of the law.”

I need someone I can obey wholeheartedly. I’ve seen gleamings of obeying my parents unto the Lord, but so often the answer they give me when I ask for specific direction is, “Ask God.” What? Whyy can’t you give me the answer? The point is, they are humble enough to know when I need a referral.

They, like Eli, recognize when a voice beside their own is the one crying to their young one’s heart.

Also, we long to say yes. It’s basic to our nature. We love it when we can say yes to a friend, yes to a parent, yes to an employer, when it’s something that both of us want and that we know is good. But we learn early on to distrust this desire, because so many times our desires lead us astray.

But what if there was Someone we could always say yes to? Someone who would never ask us to do something wrong, wicked, or even imprudent?

What if that person is Christ?

But if I had never learned to obey my parents, it would have been much more difficult to learn to obey God. Submit my will to another person’s when I’m overflowing with “good” ideas? Never! I want to be my own person, live as I see fit!

But if I’m 100% honest with myself, I freely admit that I don’t know how to be my own person. And I often nearly drown in my “good” ideas. What I need is a dispatcher who can see the whole city I’m patrolling and deploy me where the need is hottest. I need a creative director who can direct my passion, my training, my tools, and my willingness in the direction it needs to go. I need Someone who stands outside of time to help me use my time.

In short, I need Christ. No, scratch that. I NEEEEEEEEEEEEED Christ!!!!

As long as my focus was balance—as long as I brought gifts to the shrine of “blending in”–I was trying to be the one in control.

Now that I see that if I am willing to obey Christ with my entire heart, my entire soul, my entire strength, He can direct me to where I need to be and what I need to be doing.

Lest I think that I only need to listen for a mystical voice and disregard the flesh-and-blood people in my life, He’s also been showing me how incredibly He uses people to speak into the lives of others. It’s why we need the church. If we are to take on the image of Christ, if we are to become more like Him day by da, we need to open ourselves up to life audits by every other Christian around us. We need to be willing to be seen in 360. The area I feel most solid n is the area where I am often most vulnerable.

At the same time, I need to be investing myself in those around me, pointing them to this ardent lover of our souls.

All of this–listening to Christ’s voice while listening to the Godly counsel of others–is part and parcel of the divine process of sanctification. “Fit s for Heaven,” as the old song says.

The peace that’s come through this change is indescribable. Instead of constantly trying to be “true to myself,” I talk to God. My whole view of reality has changed. Instead of feverishly trying to assess which goals are most important, I turn to Him. I know that my understanding is so limited, so shaped by my experience, and so suggestible. I need Him. Not just in the “big” decisions, but in every decision. (After all, how do I even know what the “big” decisions are? I keep finding that His hierarchy and mine as such worlds apart!)

I listen to all the Godly voices in my life, while trying to find His voice so that He can take priority over everything else.

Yes, Lord–by every means possible–fit us for Heaven Help us to welcome your words of discipline. Help us to obey your words of instruction. Help us to long to be like you, to yearn to be with you.

It’s with you where our lives find our meaning, where our souls find deliverance.

Help us to listen.

And obey.

in All / Growth / Theology 0 comments

March 26, 2015 by Hannah

Quicken Us

We all bear the stamp of our Creator God. Little wonder, then, that we each in our way create. This creative streak isn’t confined to fine arts and jazz, however. Some create jokes, some create welcoming spaces, some create peace.

I dare you to find a person who does not create something.

Even in the darkest recesses of a human soul, there is something being created, though it may be warped by the lack of light and dwarfed by the lack of nourishment.

As the Spirit of the Living God stirs within us, quickening us, may we create that which we were born to create—to live the lives we were intended to live—to love with the love He has given us.

in Theology 0 comments

March 18, 2015 by Hannah

Is Your Why Big Enough to Drive Your How?

What do you do with your uncertainty? Do you let it run wild, stuff it in a box, or let it talk itself out?

Maybe it depends on the day and the situation. When you’re uncertain of how to do something but you’re absolutely convinced that it needs to be done, you doggedly look for a way to do it.

The real killer is when you’re not sure if the thing needs to be done. That’s when you waffle and hedge, and hedge and waffle. You may immerse yourself the details of the process, trying to insulate yourself from the chill of reality.

Having found myself in this state of paralysis more times than I’d like to share, I’ve started asking myself a question: “Is my Why big enough to drive my How?”

Think about it: How is a massive, bulging hulk of a guy. He’s always growing. He feeds off of others’ ideas, and has been known to triple in size after a single catered lunch meeting. Unfortunately, as he grows he often becomes more and more scatterbrained. While he’s usually inconsistent, he is certainly open to ideas. He has difficulty choosing between options and often ends discussions with, “Well, let’s do it both ways!” To prepare for possible contingencies, he often packs five suitcases, grabs his camera bag, slings his duffel bag over his arm, and anxiously combs his closet for additional bags to take more items “just in case.” Unfortunately, the larger he gets, the slower he moves. He continually feels himself pulled in many different directions and finds it easier to add to his bulk, preparing for the journey, than to actually move anywhere. Left to his own devices, he would probably never leave home. That’s where Why comes in.

Why is short. He’s a man of few words, and he can be described with few words. But he is mighty. He’s focused. He gets things done. When you know Why, you can move How anywhere. You can help How trim his bulk, choose, and move exactly where he needs to be.

You need How, but you really need Why.

So how about you? Is your Why big enough to drive your How?

in Psychology 0 comments

The very commonness of everyday things harbors the eternal marvel and silent mystery of God.

– Karl Rahner, Karl Rahner in Dialogue: Conversations and Interviews, 1965–1982

March 11, 2015 by Hannah

The Meaning of Meaning

What’s worth living for? That’s the question the Teacher takes up in his masterful book, Ecclesiastes.

Ever since a couple of friends and I decided to study this book together, ideas about it keep popping up in my life. One example is this song from Matthew West:

“The Motions”

This might hurt, it’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care if I break
At least I’ll be feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

No regrets, not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

‘Cause I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without your all consuming passion inside of me

I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

Take me all the way
(Take me all the way)
Take me all the way
(‘Cause I don’t wanna go through the motions)

Take me all the way
(Lord, I’m finally feeling something real)
Take me all the way

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?
Take me all the way
(Take me all the way)
Take me all the way
(I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go)

Take me all the way
(Through the motions)
Take me all the way

I don’t wanna go through the motions

I don’t know about you, but I have had seasons when I’ve struggled to live for what really matters.

The good news is that God knows I need to be constantly reminded of His truth, His purpose, His love, and His wisdom. His repeated commands to abide in Him are His way of helping me live.

Thank you, God.

Thank you for helping me live.

in Theology 0 comments

“To please God… to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness… to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son- it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”

– C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

March 3, 2015 by Hannah

Then It Was Nazism; Now It Is Islam

If there was ever a time that we as Christians needed to stand with Jews and with the Jewish state of Israel, it is now. When Haman was planning genocide in Babylon, Mordecai told Esther that God had placed her in her position of authority “for such a time as this.”

What is your position of authority? Where has God placed you so that your words and your life carry influence? Use it for God’s glory and stand with Israel! Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing a joint session of Congress today at 11AM EST. If there is any conceivable way you can tune in, I urge you to!

During WWII, Winston Churchill addressed Congress; the leader of one free nation appealed directly to the people of another free nation. Then, as now, one of our strongest allies was being threatened by a totalitarian force. Then it was Nazism; now it is Islam. Let’s stand with Israel and stand with Benjamin Netanyahu!

Watch the broadcast live

in Politics 0 comments

February 19, 2015 by Hannah

Martha for Mayor!

From the very first time I met Martha Lake, I was struck by her upbeat, optimistic attitude. I was only a kid and I had no idea how much she was doing here in Kokomo. All I knew was that she was an incredibly kind person with a sunny personality.

Today as we talked, I was thankful that a woman who values her duty to God and country, has taken fiscal accountability seriously, and has actively supported our community would take the plunge and run for Mayor of Kokomo. Martha knows Kokomo extremely well, having spent all but 9 months of her life here. She’s served as Howard County Auditor for 11 years and has enthusiastically supported the local prolife cause.

She is an incredible role model and a fantastic choice for Kokomo’s next mayor!

To learn more about Martha, check out the Tribune’s coverage of her campaign announcement as well as her announcement itself:

Good evening: I am Martha Lake and I am declaring my candidacy for Mayor of Our City of Firsts, Kokomo, Indiana. I believe that a great city is measured by the quality of the lives of the people who live in it.

Now is the time for proven leadership to take on the City’s toughest challenges and win! That’s what I will do if elected your mayor.

I grew up in Alto, Indiana, which in the last few years has been made a part of the City of Kokomo thru annexation. I have lived all but the first nine months of my life, right here in Howard County. I have lived on the southwest side of downtown Kokomo since 1976. I love this town and every neighborhood in it.

Here I learned that what matters is not your name, or how much money you have, but what you get done and, especially, how you do it. It’s where I have learned that you get more done when you work with people rather than against them.
But… it is where I also learned that you must be prepared to take on tough fights, and make a real difference in people’s lives, when it matters most.

My dad worked at Continental Steel for 35 years. I learned something very fundamental from my dad… hard work matters, people matter. I am proud of my siblings and I honor my parents and all they taught me. My children live in this town as well as my grandchildren. I have a vested interest in making sure we not only survive, but we thrive! Most of you have that same vested interest!

Five times, the people of this city and county have by their votes entrusted me with two of the most important jobs of this community. Currently, I am serving my third term and starting my eleventh year as County Auditor. Auditor comes with the title and responsibility of the Chief Financial Officer of Howard County. I take this position very seriously, as I should! Over the years we have maintained perfect SBOA audits and made timely property tax distribution to all Howard County taxing entities.

I have also served eight years as County Treasurer, billing and collecting property taxes and working with our tax payers. I have many contacts statewide who are always available to help us with local issues. They are just a phone call or email away. In 2011 I was also chosen by my County Treasurer peers across the state to be County Treasurer of the Year. Both positions have given me unique preparation for the position I seek today.

As both Auditor and Treasurer, my proudest accomplishment has been to stand up for Kokomo property owners and try to stop the city from raising property taxes. I was also instrumental as treasurer in giving money back to our taxpayers almost $900,000 when we received an unanticipated refund, due to a state error on our local income tax distributions.

My service as both Auditor and Treasurer has taken on powerful interest on behalf of all of the people of Kokomo. I am proud of my record….but I can’t be finished yet! As mayor I would work harder than ever in an exciting new position which offers new opportunities to bring new ideas and positive changes to this community.

Also, as mayor, my highest priority is the safety of our people. This starts with establishing respect and appreciation for our police officers, fire fighters and all public safety personnel. It means that all necessary and involved parties are brought to the table when community decisions are being made. It also means making sure that our newly annexed areas are protected as was promised… And… as is required by law. Having sufficient emergency manpower and equipment is essential.

Emergency vehicles must be easily available, well maintained and dependable. We are blessed with professional, dedicated law enforcement officers, fire fighters, dispatchers and EMA volunteers. These people need to receive the right tools, trustworthy support, and positive reinforcement and recognition to help them do their jobs effectively and efficiently. They do not take their responsibilities lightly and neither should we. Every day, their lives are at stake and so are the lives of our loved ones and even our own lives as well.

Next, we need to provide a secure and varied foundation for our young people. We need to help them flourish as they grow up and provide a stable base so that they have the option to continue to live, work and play right here when they become adults. We have the best youth in the state of Indiana. These students are prize winners and scholars. They are smart, talented, hardworking and motivated. We need to offer them the opportunities and challenges that they are moving elsewhere to find. We have great educational facilities. We need great jobs. We need to grow our population from within, not artificially by involuntary annexation of outer county limits. We need to be so attractive to those living outside our community that they want to come here to live.

Many new small businesses have been started here and we are proud and appreciative. However, we need to go after larger businesses too. Those which involve and/or explore technology, research and development, production, manufacturing, service and professional jobs and other new solid entrepreneur opportunities. We have empty buildings that need to be filled and others that need quality renovations. Surely with the right initiatives we can resurrect and bring back to life these needy areas of our City. And, fill them with permanent jobs or make them permanent homes for our people.

We have beautiful trails and we are proud of the quality of life they bring us. However, what is missing is better sidewalks around our schools for our children to walk on. We need better sidewalks in our residential areas as well. Badly cracked, broken sidewalks are dangerous and can easily be the cause of falls and serious accidents. The same is true of our City streets.

We have the hardest working, most dedicated citizens that a community could ever be blessed with. Look at what has happened in Kokomo in the last five years. The mountain top that we are on today, compared to the valley that were headed for five years ago is as different as night and day. Things did not change because of one person or one idea. Our situation has drastically changed from a dark place to a “light on a hill” due to the united efforts and unfailing spirit of all of us living and working in our community. All who have refused to allow Kokomo to be anything other than the very best it can be! I am so proud to be a part of this community and so proud of what this community stands for and has accomplished.

We stand for God and family; we stand for friends and co-workers; we stand for transparency, ethics and morals, integrity and dignity. We take care of each other. We are supernaturally bound together through both the easy and the difficult. Our community is strong, but only because our commitment to each other, to our health, our success and our prosperity is strong. We are united and committed to provide a stable and secure present and future for all who live and work here.
I am determined and dedicated to work hard to keep us on track to grow and thrive financially. I am also determined to work well with all taxing entities in Howard County, our leaders at the state level, our workers in business, our professionals and all taxpayers and citizens. City government is not about separation; City government is about unity, mutual cooperation, respect and appreciation. When working together, all things are possible. So… let us enthusiastically move forward together.

Thank you.

in Politics 0 comments

February 19, 2015 by Hannah

Blast from the Past

I just found some articles I’d submitted to The Orange and Blue Observer on March 1, 2010. That’s been a while ago! To my knowledge, they were never published, so you’re the first to see them. They certainly show what was happening on the University of Illinois campus then!

Stop Killing the Dream

in History / Politics 0 comments

February 14, 2015 by Hannah

How Do You Live for God?

My cousin Carrie Otte recently wrote this essay. I was so blessed by it I wanted to share it with you. It’s not every day that you meet a high schooler with this much wisdom!

There are two ways to live your life: God’s way or the world’s way. In the book Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian had to make the important decision of starting his pilgrimage to the Celestial City. Just as he did, we will also have to make the life-changing decision of either living for God or living for the world. Can you live in the world and not be of the world? Let’s search the evidence and see which path you should choose.

The path of living for the world will try to draw people, young and old, to vanity in how they should look: what size they should be or what they should wear. The world tries to make people believe that the world has everything they should desire, so they should live without limits while they are here. Young people are brainwashed from TV, radio, magazines, and books. Young people compare themselves to popular people who are what the world considers “perfect,” and if they compare themselves to them and they are different, they think that something is wrong. All that the people of this world care about is their outward appearance. Living for the world will not get you anywhere in life, but will get you stuck in a constant search for superficial perfection.

Living for the world will not get you anywhere in life, but will get you stuck in a constant search for superficial perfection.

The path of living for God is totally different. God wants His followers to spend their time on earth wisely because we do not know the hour that Jesus will return. In the Bible we learn that God focuses on our heart, so we should not try to draw the wrong kind of attention to ourselves. We should want to be noticed for our works for others and not for ourselves. Here is a list of things we can do to learn what God wants of us:

Reading, memorizing, and meditating on God’s Word
Praying, asking God to guide your path each day
Seeking God’s will daily

Attending church and surrounding ourselves with godly people who will encourage us to walk with God will be beneficial for us when we have to make difficult decisions about our faith.

I believe that we can live in this world and not be of this world. Every day we make decisions that will affect our future. Many things we choose are temporary and will pass away, such as a big house, money, cars, etc. We need to put our faith in Jesus Christ because He is the one and only thing that will last forever.

Bibliography

Courtney, Vicki. Five Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter.
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress.
God, The Bible.

in Ethics / Theology 0 comments

November 20, 2014 by Hannah

A Toast to Our Legal Immigrants

Here’s to you.

You played by the rules.

You filed the paperwork.

You waited for the green light.

You’ve kept your visa current, obtained a green card, or become a citizen.

Thank you.

Thank you for respecting our laws,

for recognizing that no person is above the law;

instead, seeing that law is king.

Thank you for seeing the value in this country.

Thank you for sharing in our American dream:

that wherever you come from,

whatever your story,

you have the opportunity to work hard and achieve greatness.

This administration may thumb its nose at you,

it may not recognize what you sacrificed in order to come here and stay here legally.

But I just want to say…

thank you.

in Law 0 comments

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
– Brutus in Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

November 3, 2014 by Hannah

Beat the Clock on Election Day 2014

November 4, 2014 is Election Day. Here’s four ways you can be ready!

1. Check your voter registration status

Not sure if you’re registered to vote? Check your voter registration status online.

2. Find your polling place

The polls may be open from 6AM to 6PM, but no one wants to wander around looking for their polling place! To double-check that you’re headed to the right place, look it up online.

3. See who will be on your ballot

To see exactly which candidates are running in your precinct, look it up online.

4. See where the candidates stand

There’s a wide range of ways to research your candidates, but a nonpartisan voter’s guide is a great place to start. For example, Advance America asked each candidate running for statewide office about their position on eight key issues and summarized their results in a handy guide. To see the results from your district, visit this page.

That’s all, folks! If you have a question I didn’t cover here, post a comment or check out the full list of services offered by the Indiana Election Division!

in Politics 0 comments

“Art is a contemplative business. It is also a ruthless business. One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or shut up.”

– Arthur Koestler, as quoted by William F. Buckley in God and Man at Yale

October 23, 2014 by Hannah

A Hidden Wellspring

During a trip to Missouri, our hostess at a bed and breakfast pulled back an old plywood board and showed us the old, deep well hiding underneath. Rough stones had been carefully arranged into stunningly smooth walls that ran deep into the ground. The moist soil glistened in the tiny glints of sunlight that reached its depths.

It wasn’t until I looked back at the photographs that I began to appreciate the level of craftsmanship that had been invested in that well. Instead of slapping stones this way and that, the man who made this well had carefully selected each stone and put it in its place.

In the end, because of his meticulousness, a project of necessity had become an object of beauty.

Isn’t that like life–on our best days?

At times we take on our duties with a grimace and try to dispose of them in as little time as possible. As we finish, we sigh with relief and rush on to the next duty to mark off our list.

But on those special days, those days when we see that the task in front of us is an opportunity to invest ourselves in something with larger import than the passing moment, our perspective changes.

We still realize the necessity that’s driving us on (after all, everyone needs water), but instead of throwing this chunk of frustration here and that slab of opposition there, we see the larger purpose in what we’re doing. Not only are we acquiring the material things we need to sustain our life; we’re also creating beauty with our hands and our minds.

What a double gift that wellmaker gave.

This article was originally published by Criterion Water Labs.

in Philosophy 0 comments

September 25, 2014 by Hannah

Can You Take Your Faith to Work? Ask Dan Cathy

According to John Maxwell, “Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.” Dan Cathy’s example of principled leadership in the face of vitriolic attacks has certainly influenced my outlook on life. He’s shown me how a dedicated Christian can not only build a successful business, but also maintain a Christian witness during a time of intense testing.

That’s why I was so excited to see that Mr. Cathy will be coming to Indiana this fall! He will be speaking at this year’s America’s Best Hope: Building Godly Leaders conference.

This conference will run from 8AM to 3PM on Friday, November 14th, 2014 at Northview Church (12900 Hazel Dell Pkwy., Carmel). Registration is $49.

Speakers:

Dan Cathy | Chairman, President, and CEO of Chick-fil-A
Janet Parshall | Moody Radio Talk Show Host of “In the Market“
David A. R. White | Actor in and Producer of God’s Not Dead
Russ Crosson | President and CEO of Ronald Blue & Co.
Dr. John Townsend | Psychologist, Business Consultant, and Leadership Coach
Dr. Tim Elmore | Founder and President of Growing Leaders
David Montgomery | Lead Pastor of Sojourn Community Church

Here’s the description from the event website:

OUR CAREERS DO NOT DEFINE US.
But our work does give us a great platform for serving God and serving others.
This annual event is about cultivating godly leaders in the marketplace – men and women hungry to grow and lead spiritually, professionally and personally. Our line-up of world class speakers will address what defines a godly leader and how to practically integrate faith and vocation. Come ready to be inspired and catalyzed to join a movement of marketplace leaders leveraging their platforms for the advancement of the Kingdom.

I’m looking forward to hearing these speakers, and meeting others who want to live out their faith at work! When I registered this morning, the ground floor tickets had already sold out! For more information or to reserve your seat, visit the event website today!

in Events 0 comments

September 9, 2014 by Hannah

Free Food for Thought

I don’t know about you, but I like free stuff. And I like learning things.

Those are two good reasons to check out the 2014 Creation Evidence Expo! Scientists will share evidence that supports a Biblical Christian worldview, and will engage in Q&A with the audience. Whatever your views on creation/evolution, you are more than welcome to come and join the discussion!

To get a flavor for the event, check out these excerpts of talks by Dr. Jay Wile and other featured speakers:

(Incidentally, Dr. Wile and Ellen Parran are two of my favorite speakers. If you get a chance, I highly recommend you come hear them!).

The Expo is absolutely free and the talks will take place Saturday through Wednesday (9/13-9/17) at The Life Center of Southport (4002 E. Southport Rd., Indy). (Check out the full schedule for more details).

Last year was my first time going, but these Expos have been held every year since 2005. It is so exciting to see so many different members of the body of Christ gathering in one place!

Some of this year’s topics will be:

“Brilliant: Made in the Image of God”
“The Truth about Discrimination”
“Censored Science”
“Examining the Fossil Record”
“Current Creation News”

in Science / Theology 0 comments

September 3, 2014 by Hannah

Flood the Market

“What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects—with their Christianity latent. You can see this most easily if you look at it the other way around . . . it is not the books written in direct defense of Materialism that make modern man a Materialist; it is the materialistic assumptions in all the other books. In the same way, it is not books on Christianity that will really trouble him. But he would be troubled if, whenever he wanted a cheap popular introduction to some science, the best work on the market was always by a Christian.”

C.S. Lewis

in Education 0 comments

September 2, 2014 by Hannah

Local Ministry Will Host Former Planned Parenthood Manager

Located downtown at 115 W. Mulberry Street in Kokomo, Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center helps families in the midst of unexpected pregnancies. Whether it’s a listening ear, parenting advice, or baby clothes, the staff and volunteers at Living Alternatives are committed to helping pregnant women and girls during their journey of motherhood. The Center is open Tuesday through Friday and visitors can make an appointment or stop by. For more information, see their website and Facebook page.

Each year, Living Alternatives hosts an annual banquet to share what the Lord has done through their ministry and to cast a vision for the next year. This year’s banquet will be held at First Church of the Nazarene (2734 S. Washington St., Kokomo) on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 at 6:30PM. These banquets are an excellent way to learn more about their work and get involved. It is free and open to the public. This year’s theme is, “..He rescued me…” from Psalm 18:19, which is directly related to the story of this year’s keynote speaker, Sue Thayer.

Sue Thayer worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Storm Lake, Iowa, in 2002 when a deceased infant was found in the county’s recycling center. Law enforcement subpoenaed pregnancy records from all local medical providers, but Planned Parenthood was the only agency that refused to supply patient information. Sue was directly in the crossfire of what became a national controversy regarding the privacy of medical records. Then, in December 2008, Planned Parenthood began introducing webcam abortions in every clinic in the state. Sue was fired from her role as the Center Manager when she refused to offer this new “on demand” product.

Sue has gone on to become a strong voice for life. She is a tireless advocate for children, with a special love for the unborn. As the founder and director of Cornerstone for Life Pregnancy Resource Center, Sue is dedicated to advocating for the unborn, beginning at conception. Her story is living proof of God’s mercy and grace.

To RSVP for the banquet, call (765) 454-5566 or email kokomo@hopeforafuture.com.

in Education 0 comments

August 28, 2014 by Hannah

When You Stop Learning, You Stop Growing

The following article is a summary of a talk Dr. John Ladd of Ladd Dental Group gave to the Kokomo Business Network on August 27, 2014.

“When you stop learning, you stop growing.” That’s Dr. John Ladd’s philosophy, a philosophy that’s moved him far beyond the typical path of dental practices to foster a culture of professional collaboration.

Fresh out of dental school, Dr. Ladd wanted to be part of a group practice so he could learn from and share experiences with his colleagues. As he recruited others to work with him, he invited them to shape the practice: “Some dentists are too perfectionistic: they know the effort they put into building their practice, and think others won’t appreciate it. But some of the new student graduates have good ideas too. You have to be more laissez faire about it.”

To build a “big, hairy, audacious goal” for his business, Dr. Ladd hired a coach, developed a strategic plan, and held quarterly meetings to teach core values to his staff. At each meeting, they would cover a new core value and recognize staff members who were living out the previous value. Dr. Ladd’s commitment to education continues today through many avenues, including a weekly book club he holds with his staff. Some of the books he recommends are The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma, Good to Great by Jim Collins, Topgrading by Brad Smart, and Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish.

Dr. Ladd’s love for reading has served him well, because building and maintaining a large practice takes much more than a degree in dentistry. He’s learned to use innovative advertising techniques to help his practice stand out. When he and his wife began their dental practice together, it was a novelty to see a married couple doing business together. They took advantage of that fact and ran a newspaper ad that featured their photograph. Radio and billboards have also offered unique marketing opportunities, because they were formats that other dentists hadn’t traditionally considered.

As his practice has grown and changed, Dr. Ladd has never lost sight of his goal of providing consistent, quality care “one patient at a time; one emergency at a time.” He stays on top of developments in dental care, seeking the best ways to cut costs for his patients while providing the best level of care. For example, while root canals used to be a painful process that stretched over three appointments, they can now be completed within 15 minutes. There are even methods for generating a new nerve in a tooth to restore its function. He also digitized his X-ray imaging, to leverage patients’ resources toward treatment.

He and his staff are committed to giving back to the community. While caring for Peruvian patients along the Amazon River, Dr. Ladd realized that he didn’t have to go to another country to find people in need of dental care: there were many in his own community that needed dental attention but lacked the means to pay for it. Thus, ten years ago he began partnering with the ministry Dentistry from the Heart.

In one jam-packed day each year, Dr. Ladd, his staff, Ivy Tech dental assistant students, and other volunteers assemble to donate their time and talent to low-income patients. All told, they typically have 50-60 people working. Some patients line up at 6PM the night before in order to save a good spot.

During the event, each patient first visits one area to receive dental hygiene, and then moves to another area to receive treatment. There’s no waiting: if they need something done, it’s done right then and there. The dentists and hygienists can’t fix everything, but they can do a lot. By the time the sun goes down, over 200 people have received dental care.

Today, Dr. Ladd and his team of ten dentists and orthodontists serve patients at six different locations with Ladd Dental Group, offering services from basic dental care to orthodontics, TMJ treatment, and even dental implants. Dr. Ladd is currently working on new expansions and new collaborations. After all, “there are always new dental students graduating that need to be mentored.”

in Health 0 comments

August 3, 2014 by Hannah

Is It Really All About Me?

There’s an epidemic sweeping across America–an epidemic of narcissism. Tonight, author, teacher, and radio host Peter Heck will begin a new six-part series about our deadly obsession with ourselves.

Each talk will begin at 6PM at Christian Life Fellowship (1009 Holiday Dr., Greentown, IN).

The topics will be:

August 3rd
ME: America… Obsessed with Me

August 10th
ME: Marriage… Adoring Me

August 17th
ME: Youth… Coddling Me

August 24th
ME: Society… Indulging Me

August 31st
ME: Culture… Worshipping Me

September 7th
ME: Jesus Christ… Killing Me

The series is free and open to the public. For more information, see www.peterheck.com/me/presentation.

in Psychology / Theology 0 comments

August 1, 2014 by Hannah

Why Doesn’t the Cephalic Vein Go to the Head?

[I recently came across a blog post I’d written for my anatomy/physiology students. It was kind of interesting, so I thought I’d post it here.]

Usually a vein or artery’s name helps you find where it is located. For example, the brachiocephalic vein supplies the arm (“brachium“) and head (“cephalicus“). The radial artery is next to the radius, and the digital artery supplies the digit, or finger.

This is all well and good–unless you’re talking about the cephalic vein. If its name made sense, it would supply the head. But it’s nowhere near the head: it’s hanging out in the upper arm. What gives?

in Science 0 comments

February 10, 2014 by Hannah

A World Split Apart

Having survived the Soviet gulag, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn knew what it was to be a prisoner. His seminal work The Gulag Archipelago chronicles the development of the gulag and the men, women, and children killed or maimed there. When his homeland exiled him, he found the West imprisoned in a different kind of cage–a gilded one. This bondage was the theme of the commencement speech he delivered at Harvard University on June 8, 1978. After reading the following quote I knew I had to post the entire speech:

in History / Politics 0 comments

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

November 29, 2013 by Hannah

224 Years of Thanks

This Thankgiving, I’m thanking God for about seven million things. At the top of the list are my Lord, family, friends, job, and country.

It’s so easy to rush through life and take all these blessings for granted. Then I get a wakeup call.

in History / Politics 0 comments

November 25, 2013 by Hannah

The Doctor Is In

Nearly 22 years ago, right around Christmastime, a family adopted a baby girl. She needed medical attention, but most pediatricians in town had already arranged their holiday schedules and weren’t taking new patients. One doctor, however, took the case. And tonight at church the parents of that little girl recognized a guest as that doctor. God is good. All the time.

in Sociology 0 comments

September 8, 2013 by Hannah

An Atheist’s Advice on Witnessing

Why should a Christian witness? This is how Penn Jillette, an ardent atheist, answered that question:

I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a Heaven and Hell, and people could be going to Hell, or not getting eternal life, or whatever, and you think that, well, it’s not really worth telling ’em this because it would make it socially awkward…

How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?
How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was going to hit you and you didn’t believe it–if that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you.

And this is more important than that.”

in Theology 0 comments

People today are trying to hang on to the dignity of man, but they do not know how to, because they have lost the truth that man is made in the image of God.
Francis Schaeffer, Escape from Reason

August 3, 2013 by Hannah

Why I Believe

I found my real dad. But only because He found me first.

I’d been told that I was a random assortment of molecules brought together for no known reason. I’d heard that it was pointless to look for meaning outside myself, and that I should stop expecting what mattered to me to matter to anyone else.

in Science / Theology 0 comments

April 16, 2013 by Hannah

A Tale of Two States

We’re not in Illinois anymore, Toto. And that’s a good thing. In Illinois, governors go the Big House. In Indiana, they become college presidents.

Since moving from Illinois to Indiana, I’ve noticed other stark differences between the two states. Like money, and vision. When I was at the University of Illinois, our college president (who has since left) lectured us on “shared sacrifice.” In the Q&A afterward, a student brought up the fact that he made more than the President of the United States and asked how he planned to share in our sacrifice. A redder face I never saw, but it was anger, not embarrassment, that flooded his answer. Let’s just say “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” remained a hypothetical.

At another townhall meeting, college administrators outlined a gloom-and-doom picture of the university’s future, since the state’s funding was less than forthcoming. Trying to be helpful, I gave some ideas of how to encourage entrepreneurship in the faculty. I thought requiring faculty to start a company or write a book with mass appeal as a condition of tenure would be a good start, since the professor and the university could broker a partnership with mutual benefit. My enthusiasm was met by blank stares and a few words about not wanting to run the university like a business.

The U of I may not have been ready for a new approach to higher education, but Purdue University is. Here’s an invitation President Mitch Daniels sent just this week (emphasis added):

President Mitch Daniels invites all faculty, staff and students to join him for a President’s Forum at 8 a.m. April 25 in the East and West Faculty Lounges, Purdue Memorial Union.
The forum will feature remarks and a panel discussion about innovation and commercialization and steps Purdue is taking to encourage entrepreneurism among faculty, staff and students.
The forum will be webcast via Windows Media Live Stream at mms://video1.itap.purdue.edu/PresidentsForum
It will be archived on the President’s Website after the event at mms://video1.itap.purdue.edu/bns/General/Forum130425.wmv

in Education / Politics 1 comments

April 4, 2013 by Hannah

Iron(ic) God

Kiss full of hate
Rooster accusing
Innocence only a shroud

Murderer walks
God-Man–He stumbles
Simon Doe shoulders the cross

Mocker assured
Angels suspended
Victory won by a worm

Skulls get to grin
Tomb only rented
Hearse traded in for a tux

in Theology 0 comments

February 27, 2013 by Hannah

Love. What’s God Got to Do With It?

What’s God got to do with love? Everything, as it turns out. Here’s Peter Heck’s take on the question, in this recent talk to young people:

Every action begins with an idea, and every idea begins with a worldview. Who’s shaping your view of life and what it means? Many TV shows portray casual sex as a way of life, and cynicism as a coping mechanism. Was this God’s design for men and women, or did something go way, way wrong?

in Humor / Sociology 0 comments

February 5, 2013 by Hannah

A Student’s Complaint

Students, poor students. Here’s a letter my Grandpa received when he was Chairman of Math and Science almost twenty years ago.

[Date]

Dear [Instructor’s Name]:

Today I came to Math 104, with the intention of taking an exam. After a few minutes a medical emergency, unknown to me at that time, guided me to the hospital emergency room instead.

The day I was to return to class, you reviewed the exam with the class. Knowing I still had to make up the exam, I decided not to go to class that day.

The following day when I asked you about re-taking the exam and showed you my doctor’s excuse you informed me that you would not let me make it up because I had already seen it (the day I got sick). You went on to tell me that this exam would be the exempt low score that you offer your class.

I have a real problem with this. I feel I have the right to make up an exam if I have a legitimate excuse for missing the original one. Especially with an authentic document from the emergency room physician.

I still want to make up this exam. I would like to resolve this problem as soon as possible, but I will not hestitate to go to a higher authority if necessary.

Sincerely, [Student Name]

cc [Name, Chairman of Math and Science]
[Name, Director of Math and Science]

in Education / Humor 0 comments

February 5, 2013 by Hannah

The Evolution of the Math Problem

I found this among my Grandfather’s papers on a dot-matrix-printed sheet of paper. I’m guessing it gave him quite a chuckle, which is why he kept it. The author is unknown.

Take a simple math problem, subject it to thirty years of new, improved teaching methods, and deduce the formula to yield our average yearly drop in SAT scores.

In 1960
“A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of this price. What is his profit?”

In 1970 (Traditional Math)
“A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of this price; in other words, $80. What is his profit?”

In 1970 (New Math)
“A logger exchanges a set L of lumber for a set M of money. The cardinality of set M is 100, and each element is worth $1. Make one hundred dots representing the elements of the set M. The set C of costs of production contains 20 fewer points than the set M. Represent the set C as a subset of M, and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set P of profits?”

In 1980
“A logger sells a truckload of wood for $100. His cost of production is $80, and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.”

In 1990
“By cutting down beautiful forest trees, a logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making money? (Topic for class participation: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel?”

in Education / History / Politics / Sociology 0 comments

January 22, 2013 by Hannah

Touching the Face of God

On January 22, 2013, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I gathered with others in the Urbana-Champaign community to commemorate the human lives lost through abortion. In this opportunity to speak at the Community Ecumenical Pro-Life Prayer Vigil, I wanted to share hope. The prolife movement is alive and well because of young people like the ones I met at the University of Illinois.

“In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1)

Why does Scripture open with these words? Because God is the center of reality: “…[I]n Him we live, and move, and have our being…” (Acts 17:28)

During creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” So God created man in His own image… male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26–27)

God stamped His likeness upon us, and shared His divine being with us.

Because He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life… the man became a living being.”

This is at the heart of the prolife movement. A person is alive and is human because he is made in the image of God. Humanity has nothing to do with age, ability to learn, or net worth.

The future of the prolife movement is bound up in our ability to communicate this to others.

And to speak to this generation, we need to know where it’s at.

When I was on campus, I invited medical students to attend a screening of the film Maafa 21. I sent this question out to the med school listserv: “What is the leading cause of death among African-Americans?” I listed several options to choose from: heart disease, cancer, stroke, or abortion.

The answer is abortion.

I thought that the students would challenge the fact that I would group abortion with the other causes of death, and say that a fetus isn’t really alive, or human.

The email sparked a lot of debate, but no one questioned the fact that unborn children are humans. They took exception to the fact that some children should be born.

One student wrote, “By ‘Planned Parenthood’s aggressive agenda against minorities’ do you mean showering them with condoms and birth control pills?”

Another student said, “Yes, black women have the highest rate of abortion in this country. But it is also true that hispanics and blacks are also much more likely to be below the poverty line…”

She continued, saying: “I grew up in DC, a city where minorities are the majority. I volunteered at planned parenthood, where primarily black nurses and black doctors cared for primarily black women. This is an opinion–but I don’t think they were trying to kill off their race. I think they were trying to provide sexual health care to a population that desperately needed it.”

It’s logical that this young woman would say this, because it’s what she’s very likely been taught throughout her life. The anti-life side has been much more shrewd about instituting “sex-ed” programs to convey their viewpoint and our educational establishment is dominated by worldviews such as secular humanism. They know how influential peers can be, which is why here in Champaign
Planned Parenthood has a program of “Peer educators”: highschoolers trained to convince other highschoolers of how great Planned Parenthood is.

Is it any wonder that so many students believe what they are taught?

I quickly found how unpopular my viewpoint was. Of the emails that came through, only one other student spoke up in support of the unborn.

But that student gave me so much hope.

Meg

The fact that a medical student from here at the U of I was a passionate spokesperson for the unborn made me rejoice. Meg helped restart the Christian Medical Association chapter on this campus. Today she unashamedly speaks about the sanctity of life and takes a public stand against Obamacare.

Even though there is intense pressure to conform on the issue of abortion, I have hope for my generation because I have met valiant prolife advocates all over this campus.

Students like Meg carry the image of our Heavenly Father wherever they go.

You’ve heard about some of the incredibly passionate prolife young people who are active on a national scale—people like Lila Rose with Live Action and James O’Keefe with the Veritas Project. But I want to take a few minutes and share with you what I’ve seen right here on our campus.

Jane

There are currently 1061 Registered Student Organizations here at the University of Illinois. Very few tackle the issue of abortion, but one that does is Illini Collegians for Life, a group affiliated with Students for Life of Illinois.

I got to know a student named Jane at Quad Day, when many of the thousand organizations try to reach new students. Our Illini Collegians for Life booth was directly next to a pro-abortion group. They were loudly promoting their “safe sex” freebies, and it was super uncomfortable being right next to them!

One especially vocal young woman decided to leave her booth and come over to ours. She pointed to some of the literature on our table and loudly proclaimed she didn’t believe fetuses looked like that. Jane didn’t shout back. She just calmly showed her a brochure on fetal development with actual photos of babies as they grew.

The change in the woman was phenomenal. She’d come over to our table to start a shouting match, but Jane’s gentleness was something she couldn’t fight with.

Chris

College can be an intense time of change, and many students are won over by the Leftist climate. A student named Chris actually went in the opposite direction. Chris came to the U of I believing that abortion was acceptable, but by doing independent reading and thinking, he realized he was on the wrong side.

He became ardently prolife. He testified before the Illinois Student Senate on prolife resolutions and during one 40 Days for Life campaign here in Champaign, he signed up to go to the clinic every day.

John-Paul

I’m sure that many of you have heard about or know John-Paul. He was active on campus while he was studying engineering at the U of I, and when he graduated he founded Students for Life of Illinois. He is intensely active in lobbying for prolife legislation, providing resources for prolife campus groups across the state, and organizing statewide events to make abortion unthinkable. Like John-Paul says, life is good.

He taught me an incredible amount about what it means to be prolife. He taught me that abortion affects people of all ages. The babies aborted in 1973 would be celebrating their 40th birthday this year if they had lived. So I’ve lost teachers because of abortion. The babies aborted in 1983 would be turning 30 this year. So I’ve lost classmates to abortion. The children who would have been born in 1993 would be hitting 20 this year. I’ve lost students to abortion.

But during these 40 years under Roe v. Wade, many prolife young people have also been born.

Jerry

Young people like Jerry. Jerry is extremely prolife and extremely political. He worked with Living Alternatives locally so they could provide free pregnancy tests inside the Student Union.

He also campaigned hard for prolife candidates. You need someone to go door to door? Ask Jerry. You need to know how prolife a candidate is? Ask Jerry. His enthusiasm is so infectious I think it’s something viral. And his willingness to jump into challenging situations is legendary.

There’s definitely times when you shouldn’t go into battle alone.

Another Student

Each year the University sponsors an event called “Sex Out Loud.” I avoided it like the plague, until one year when I was invited to help with a booth. The booth was sponsored by a Newman group highlighting chastity and emphasizing the Theology of the Body. The event was held in the Illini Union, and was surprisingly poorly attended. Most of the people were the ones working for groups offering stuff like anonymous sex. Some poor students were required by their professors to go to every booth and get a signature proving they’d been there. Our booth was the only one offering anything besides “if it feels good, do it.” But that was our drawing point. We were so different we stuck out like a sore thumb!

People came up wondering what in the world we were about. The student I was working with quoted from a movie where Cameron Diaz tells Tom Cruise, “Don’t you know that when you sleep with someone, your body makes a promise whether you do or not!” He was able to ask students thoughtprovoking questions that challenged what society considers “normal.”

Folks from every booth were also given the chance to speak to the entire gathering. This other student did that, giving a concise description of God’s plan for sexuality.

Diana

Another student I met and got to know well was Diana. Diana obtained her Ph.D. here at the university, and is pursing a career in academia. Her mother worried that if she betrayed her prolife sympathies at this early stage, it might hurt her chances.

But what Diana decided was that to hold back when she would speak would change who she was. And she wasn’t willing to be silent when she would speak. She was one of a handful of students that testified before the Illinois Student Senate when they were considering options to diversify their healthcare options. She eloquently pointed out that many gynecological needs are not covered by the student health insurance plan because only a very few students ever need them.

This was only one way that she lived out her prolife beliefs. Her research focus was influenced by her beliefs about human embryonic stem cell research.

Stephanie

Diana is not the only young woman who’s broken out of the world’s mold for women. Because of the media attention given to women such as Sandra Fluke, it’s easy to think that all single women in school are die-hard abortion fans. But they’re not. Even though it can be intimidating to voice an opposing viewpoint, one of my friends, Stephanie, wrote a class assignment on Feminists for Life. This group advocates for a new definition of feminism, a feminism that values women that are born and those that are unborn.

These are just some of the students I have met here on the U of I campus. There’s many others, too, like:

Mike

Mike, who organized busfulls of students from several campuses to attend March for Life, and

Lazaro

Lazaro, who set up a prolife flash mob on the Quad.

The reason I have hope is because I know students from this campus who recognize the deep definition of dignity, which stems from our Creator God.

Their lives bear His image—the likeness of God.

in Ethics / Theology 0 comments

January 2, 2013 by Hannah

Running the Race

My grandfather, Dr. Carl F. Painter, wrote this letter to us grandkids on August 17, 2001. There are 11 of us, and I pray that we will carry forward the Godly heritage that my grandparents entrusted to us!

I consider this to be the most important letter I ever wrote or may ever have the opportunity to write. To each of you eleven grandchildren I’ll try to pass along the thoughts and counsel that I hope will most enrich your lives. Your grandmother Dorothy and I have been so blest and happy to have each of our children remain strong in their faith and see them pass along to each of you the desire to follow Jesus. We pray for each of you that you in turn will pass this rich heritage on to your children. We pray as Jesus did that “not one of you will be lost.” There are so many ways that the evil influences of your generation will tempt you to turn aside and we know that you will face incredible obstacles in your future.

A good athlete thrives on an obstacle course. The Apostle Paul and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews both compare the Christian life to a race in which running effectively involves a total commitment and a resolve to abandon all encumbrances. In my college years I competed many times in running events and a few times with famous competitors such as Fred Wilt and Wes Santee, who taught me much about how to master the techniques of running to win. On one occasion I had the opportunity to meet Gil Dodd the great distance runner at a large indoor track meet in a field house at Naperville, IL. One of my team mates asked Mr. Dodd, then a coach of one of the teams entered, for his autograph and I watched as he wrote, “Wherefore seeing we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us.” He noted the passage was Heb 12:1 and then signed his name. Every good runner exercises strong self discipline in extensive training preparing for a race. Take sufficient time preparing for the race before you, but keep pace with those of good character and do not ever let evil influences catch up on you.

The Apostles also compare the Christian life to deadly warfare that requires a total commitment to defeating the forces of evil arrayed for battle against us. The full armour of God and the sword of the Spirit are essential to success in winning this battle. The Devil is relentless in his attempts to find where you are vulnerable and attack your weaknesses. Keep vigilance in your daily walk with your Lord and seek His power to overcome temptation and be alert to the subtle deceptions the Devil will use to detract you from serving God. Remember God does not permit the Devil to tempt you beyond that which you are able to resist and with each temptation He provides a way of escape. But He expects us to be alert and use the way He provides. Always remember that the best defense is a good offense and the sword of the Spirit is your offensive weapon.

Character that God expects of us takes a lifetime to build and yet it can be lost in a few reckless moments. The pure virtuous character the followers of Christ must demonstrate makes the world a better place for everyone. Your life can influence many others to follow the Lord and be saved and that is such a heavy responsibility to realize your actions can bring others to Christ or lead them away from obedience. Think about each step you take as to how it may help or hurt someone else. No one is an island whose life will not affect others. As Jesus asks, “How much then is man more than a sheep?”

Many in the world are trying to redefine truth as if it were flimsy and changeable to be anything someone might desire. You and I know that truth is embodied in Jesus the sovereign and creator of the universe. Always surround yourself with truth and don’t waver in it. You may feel that you have a long life ahead of you and you will have plenty of time to think about these things later, but life is shorter than you realize and later will be sooner than you think.

My grandfather and my father left me a great heritage of Christian character that I have not fully exemplified, but I want each of you to see how wonderful it would be for each of you to pass along this legacy to your children and your grandchildren as an unbroken chain. What a great family reunion we will have in that heavenly landscape. Grandma Dorothy and I will pray for each of you every day all of our remaining days on this earth and look forward to meeting great-grand children we may never see here in that great reunion in the place God will provide.

There is much more we would like to write to you about that. We hope to include more in another letter the Lord may yet let us write sometime. Again we want you to know we love you so much and are so proud of your maturity and your Christian walk with the Lord.

in History 0 comments

December 31, 2012 by Hannah

If I Were the Devil

Growing up, there was one radio voice I loved more than any other: Paul Harvey’s. He covered funny stories in that inimitable voice of his, and I always tried to anticipate “The Rest of the Story.”

I’d never thought about his beliefs. That is, until my aunt forwarded me a clip called “If I Were the Devil.”

At first I was incredulous. Would Paul Harvey, the man I always thought of as a gentle radio voice, really do something like this? It turns out he did. Snopes.com documents that the first version appeared in his newspaper column in 1964, and he released various versions throughout the years. After watching it, it started making more sense to me. Here was a man who’d maintained a firm moral backbone throughout his years in radio. But in that time, he’d seen plenty of people succumb to the best-advertised ideas, the kinds of ideas that need repetition in order to become believable.

His words ring as true now as they did when he first shared them:

If I were the prince of darkness, I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness.

I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree–thee.

So, I would set about however necessary to take over the United States.

I’d subvert the churches first, and I would begin with a campaign of whispers.

With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.”

To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince the children that man created God instead of the other way around. I’d confide that what’s bad is good and what’s good is square.

And the old, I would teach to pray after me, “Our Father, which are in Washington …”

Then, I’d get organized, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.

I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil, I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each, in its turn, was consumed.

And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellect but neglect to discipline emotions. I’d tell teachers to let those students run wild. And before you knew it, you’d have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

Within a decade, I’d have prisons overflowing and judges promoting pornography. Soon, I would evict God from the courthouse and the schoolhouse and them from the houses of Congress.

In his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I’d lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.

If I were the devil, I’d take from those who have and give to those who wanted until I killed the incentive of the ambitious.

What’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich?

I’d convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun and that what you see on television is the way to be.

And thus, I could undress you in public and lure you into bed with diseases for which there are no cures.

In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.

in Politics 0 comments

December 31, 2012 by Hannah

Good Movies, Coming Right Up!

Looking for a good movie? Check out the films recommended by BreakPoint, the ministry founded by Chuck Colson! Its five sections kick off with the star-studded “Films with a Christian Theme.” Don’t worry: there’s no embarassing low-budget films like you might have seen in your youth group growing up. By mining many years and many genres, BreakPoint’s compiled a list that has films with directors like Alfred Hitchcock and classics like Chariots of Fire and A Man for All Seasons. There’s lesser-known films like Sergeant York that explore complex issues like freedom of conscience. The following section, “Films with Moral Themes,” shows films like Sophie Scholl: The Last Days that shows several German students’ resistance to Nazism. “Other Worldviews and Philosophies” showcases films like 2001: A Space Odyessy. The next-to-last section has “Childrens’ Films with Biblical or Moral Themes,” and the list ends with films “Recommended by Centurions.” (“Centurions” are those striving to live out a Biblical Christian worldview).

One word of caution: when it comes to films, there are many standards, even among Christians. I would recommended using this list as a starting point. Before popping the popcorn and inviting your family and friends over, dig some more on the title that interests you. Some of the films have a short disclaimer after the description, alerting you to inappropriate content. But others (such as The Matrix) don’t. One place to look for more detailed information about possible objectionable material is Focus on the Family’s website Plugged In.

BreakPoint’s done families a huge favor, by compiling a list of classics and lesser known films. Let’s dig in!

in Reviews 2 comments

December 10, 2012 by Hannah

An Appeal to Joe Donnelly

[This open letter to Senator-elect Joe Donnelly originally appeared in part in the Kokomo Perspective on December 9, 2012 and in full in the Kokomo Herald on December 10, 2012.]

Dear Editor,

Hobby Lobby is facing large fines by the Federal Government beginning in January because they refuse to provide coverage for abortifacients to its 13,500 employees. We appeal to Senator-elect Joe Donnelly to make good on his commitment as a pro-life Democrat. We hope that Senator elect Joe Donnelly was unaware of the consequences of his support for the law he voted for called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and that he will now push for protection for the consciences of fellow Hoosiers. We know it may be difficult to stand alone if necessary, but we pray that Mr. Donnelly will be emboldened to do so.

The current smokescreen – that Federal tax dollars will not pay for abortion drugs – is just that, a smokescreen. The government requiring businesses to pay for abortion drugs is certainly no better. Such political ploys may divert criticism, but they suggest a deceptive and dishonest manner of governing. We urge Mr. Donnelly to use the weight of his influence to protect those humans conceived but not yet born. Our religious convictions AND our scientific understanding of the human body are why we do not consider these drugs to be conducive to healthy living.

One of our former Presidents wrote, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical” and “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

Hopeful and sincere,

David, Ann and Hannah Ihms

Pastor Steve and Evelyn Sherwood

Pastor Jeff, Tammy and Jayme Hierholzer

Rob and Robin Brookshire

Leelia Cornell

Ed and Nilda Penaflor

Pastor Bill Martin

Troy and Brenda Pullen

Cindy Benedum

Jacob and Betty Deurloo

Clovis Smith

Michael G. Kranner

Joe and Andrea Russeau

Mickey Jackson

Mr. and Mrs. Peter Heck

Faith Rose-Scales

Don and Linda Burris

Jeff Schwartz

Gail Ambrose

Geri and Jesse Brewster

Pastor Ed and Marylu Vasicek

Terry and Sharon Watson

Mark Lantz

Karen and Loren Hylton

Barney and Mariann Shayne

Larry and Felicia King

“These abortion-causing drugs go against our faith, and our family is now being forced to choose between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful,” David Green, Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO, said in September. “…We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”

http://www.obamacarewatch.org/primer/employer-mandate

in Politics 0 comments

September 3, 2012 by Hannah

Starting a WordPress blog

If you want to quickly share information with your students, it’s hard to beat a course blog. There’s a bunch of free blog sites out there, like WordPress. Here’s a guide that’ll get you blogging in no time, plus some highlights:

Content

One nice thing in a blog is that you can keep static content (in pages) separate from changing content (in posts).

Pages

If there’s info that’s not going to change all that much through the semester, but students will need ready access to, that’s good stuff for a page. I made one page for Powerpoint files where I uploaded class files as we went through the class. You can also use pages for office hour info, TA emails, etc.

Posts

Posts are great for announcements, FAQs, and other info that’s dynamic. Most folks set up their blog so the posts show up on the front page of the blog, so whatever’s been newly updated is front and center. If you want, you can sort posts by various categories to make them easier to search. It’s really easy to upload an image (as long as it’s a jpeg), or link to a video, and post it.

Theme

In WordPress, the “theme” is like the look and feel of your blog. It’s basically digital wallpaper. You can play around with themes and find which one you like best. Here’s some ideas on themes others have picked out.

Menu

You can arrange the menu to help guide students to info. For example, you can highlight commonly used pages by putting them in a menu. Also, if you sort your posts by category, you can put links to your categories in your menu. On a lot of themes, the menu shows up right under the blog’s header that shows its name.

Comments

If you want to, you can set up your blog so as soon as someone comments on a post, WordPress emails you.

Disclaimer: once you start a course blog, it can get addictive. But kick back and have fun with it!

in How To 0 comments

August 11, 2012 by Hannah

Illinois Women Rally for Romney August 21st

The following article was originally published by Illinois Review.

It’s official. Women looking for a sugar daddy are more likely to vote for Barack Obama. This news comes from the biggest sugar daddy dating website of them all. But let me be clear. Not all of us take the fictional “Julia” or the all-too-real Sandra Fluke as role models. Our goal is to work honest jobs in our homes and offices, not to be crowned welfare queens.

If you’d like to meet others from across Illinois who are committed to real women’s rights, come by the “Girls Night Out to Get Romney In” rally on Tuesday, August 21st. Talk show host Amy Jacobson will lead the event, and there’ll be great food, special guests, and incredible music. It’s taking place at Café la Cave in Des Plaines, and there’s a $15 admission fee at the door. The doors open at 6PM, and the rally begins at 7PM.

To RSVP, send an email to kickoffrally@gmail.com with a subject line saying “Yes!” and listing the number of people coming. Bring your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers.

We’re conservatives, we’re women, and we’re in this to win.

in Politics 0 comments

August 8, 2012 by Hannah

A Threat Isn’t a Guarantee

The following article was originally published by Illinois Review.

“[T]o the organizer, compromise is a key and beautiful word… If you start with nothing, demand 100 per cent, then compromise for 30 per cent, you’re 30 per cent ahead.” That’s Saul Alinsky’s advice in Rules for Radicals.

Unfortunately for Leftists, sometimes when you start with nothing and demand everything, you end up with nothing. That’s what happened when the student chapter of the ACLU and other organizations tried to kick Chick-fil-A off of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.

The first public sign that something was afoot was two articles published on February 10, 2011 in the Daily Illini, the dominant campus newspaper. In one article, a student opinion columnist roasted Chick-fil-A as a whole because a Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A franchise donated chicken to the Pennsylvania Family Institute: “I’m not a fan of sleeping with the enemy (or feeding the enemy), and that’s what Chick-fil-A virtually did. Just because you’re not Hitler doesn’t make it OK to supply ammo to the Germans.” She went on to call for a boycott and the removal of the campus Chick-fil-A: “We sometimes forget it, but our voice is pretty strong, and if we protest hard enough, we have the power to get certain food chains we find displeasing out of the Union.”

The second article showed a small metal crucifix embedded in a Chick-fil-A sandwich and stated, “University students may be biting into more than they can chew.” It gave no details on the infamous Philadelphia exchange, simply saying, “Chick-fil-A, an original Southern restaurant and fast food chain, has been openly criticized for its transparent Christian values and conservative religious ideals.” The leap in logic was that Christian values suppressed LGBT rights, though this was never explicitly stated. Two students quoted in the article not only supported a boycott of the campus Chick-fil-A, but called for it to be banned.

A week later action on the issue was reported in a third article, which featured a photo of the campus Chick-fil-A’s “Closed on Sundays” sign. Representatives from the student ACLU chapter and OUTlaw (a campus organization formed by LGBT law students) had written a letter against Chick-fil-A to the University President and Interim Chancellor. Interestingly, two students invited to comment on the developments did not lend personal support for Chick-fil-A, but affirmed a business’s right to do what it pleased: “The University isn’t forcing us to buy Chick-fil-A. They aren’t forcing us to eat Chick-fil-A.” A member of Building Bridges, a religious LGBT group said, “I don’t think that it is necessary to try and go close it down as some of the universities have tried to do and some movements on campus are doing,”

Thus, while campus activists pulled off the gloves, they didn’t necessarily have the support of the bulk of campus.

Four days later the Daily Illini editorial board weighed in, saying “Many companies make political and social donations, and if your convictions lead you to take your business away from a company – including Chick-fil-A – that is completely within your rights. But banishing the restaurant from campus based on its adherence to religious convictions would be true discrimination.”

While the students quoted by Daily Illini articles were either dead-set on removing Chick-fil-A from campus, or viewed Chick-fil-A as entitled to distasteful actions, a steady current of pro-Chick-fil-A sentiment ran through the campus news outlet’s comments section. The newspaper did not print any pro-Chick-fil-A Letters-to-the-Editor (though not for lack of trying), but at least in the comments sections students could share their thoughts, such as: “Since when is having ‘traditional Christian values’ a crime?” and “Don’t you believe in diversity of viewpoint and belief?” Two Facebook pages cropped up in support of the campus Chick-fil-A.

Beyond drumming up support among registered student organizations and writing letters to campus administrators, the next key step was to pass an anti-Chick-fil-A resolution in the student-run Illinois Student Senate. This organization has elected representatives of each college in the University. While its resolutions are not formally binding, they offer significant weight for campus activists who can use the ISS’s decision to advance their goals.

When the vote was moved back a week, the president of the campus ACLU wrote in to the campus newspaper. He affirmed Chick-fil-A’s right to donate where it wanted, but called students to protest it by boycotting and taking action to remove Chick-fil-A from campus. He said, “This is not an attenuated, symbolic movement by GLBT groups. This is about taking a pragmatic look at the causes of anti-gay oppression and attempting to directly address those causes. This is saying that we are against University space being used to facilitate the filtering of funds from students to groups that wish harm upon members of our campus community.”

His views, though passionately expressed, did not reflect the views of the campus as a whole. Ultimately, after heated debate, the Illinois Student Senate voted against the resolution.

Interestingly, the failure didn’t even get a headline: the decision was buried in the middle of another article. It deserves a headline, however. It shows what can happen when political activists put political correctness above others’ rights. They can be defeated.

This is important to remember as we consider what’s happening with Chick-fil-A now. As Mayor Emanuel and Alderman Moreno try to set aside Chick-fil-A-free zones, Equality Illinois has set its sights even higher. The largest LGBT organization in Illinois has called for all 19 Illinois Chick-fil-As to be removed.

For students who will be on campuses with Chick-fil-A this fall, prepare now. Bring up the issue with your campus representatives. Get involved in your campus newspaper, or start your own. Your circulation may not rival the established campus outlets, but you can give a place for people to openly voice their views. Start a petition showing your support of Chick-fil-A. Talk to your friends, so they know what’s happening. And keep in mind that even the Illinois ACLU supported the Chick-fil-A CEO’s freedom of speech!

There will be mixed feelings about Chick-fil-A. And there must be freedom to criticize or applaud this company accordingly. For now, that freedom is alive and well at the University of Illinois. Just this summer, one student publicly expressed his displeasure with the campus restaurant, and others started a Boycott Chick-fil-A UIUC Facebook page, but others made a special effort to show their support there on Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and support a Keep Chick-fil-A at UIUC Facebook page.

If activists try to close down your Chick-fil-A, remember that the Left is making it up as they go along, and wanting something isn’t the same as getting it. A threat carries no guarantee of inevitability.

in Ethics / Politics 0 comments

August 7, 2012 by Hannah

At Death’s Door

The following article was originally published by Illinois Review.

There’s something more convincing than statistics, and that’s pain.

As I stood outside an abortion clinic this summer, I caught just a glimpse of the crushing pain—physical, spiritual, and emotional—that abortion inflicts on all it touches. I saw that there’s times when statistics just insulate me from what I don’t want to see, and inure me to the thought that trends pile up one life at a time.

The building itself was a hideous block building with a tiny parking lot. The waiting room must have extremely cramped, because even though the sun was beating down, family members would check in their sweethearts, wives, sisters, mothers, or friends, then stand in the parking lot, drive away to return later, or wander around aimlessly.

I had no undercover camera to see what was happening inside, but the horror of these moments was reflected in the faces of those enduring it outside.

One man paced around, puffing on a cigarette a few times, then feverishly stamping it out. Another man wept uncontrollably. One of the prolife counselors asked him what was wrong. He said that his girlfriend was inside having an abortion, but he had wanted to keep the baby. He never even got to meet his child.

At that very moment, I’m sure there were delivery wards full of people of the exact same age, socioeconomic class, and ethnic background, just as distracted and distraught. But at least they could talk to one another about the baby’s name, rearrange the baby clothes for the umpteenth time, or speculate on whether she’d have her mom or daddy’s eyes.

What did the people here have to talk about?

Their wife or girlfriend would come out in pain, and there would be no precious bundle. There would be no congratulations, cards, or baby bows. Just pain. And shame.

A prolife counselor greeted each person coming up to the clinic, and told them about a free ultrasound and other resources for their child. His gentleness sometimes elicited a response, and one woman, after checking her sister into the clinic, came back to talk.

She wanted to know if we had any advice on sterilization. She said she knew her sister would never talk to us, but she needed help: this was her eighth abortion. A tall, spare woman, she nervously crossed and recrossed the street several times, always clutching her purse to her arm. Finally she asked us if we knew where she could get a drink. When the procedure was finally done, she pulled her car into the clinic’s narrow lot and helped wheel her sister down toward the car. When the wheelchair was as close as possible, she helped her sister stand and move into the front seat. The woman was visibly in pain; she walked deliberately, seemed drugged or extremely tired, and slumped into the front seat.

Not everyone had the support of their family. One beautiful African-American woman, probably in her late teens and dressed to the hilt, was escorted in by a forty-something white guy in a stylish jacket. The next day a man who looked strikingly similar was back with a different girl. I wondered what questions, if any, the front desk asked those who checked in patients.

A young family with a father, mother, and boy about seven years old came up. The father and son checked in the mother, then left. I wondered what you told your son about something like this. If Mom was going to bring a new baby home, you’d need to prepare your son over a course of months so he could get ready for a new baby sister or brother. He might think about which toys to share, and ask all the questions about where they were going to sleep, and if he’d get to hold him or not. With something like an abortion, I figured the parents just said it was a routine doctor’s appointment. How do you tell your son he had a sibling you decided he would never meet?

One threesome that came up to the clinic was a mother, a daughter, and the daughter’s boyfriend. The girl was silent, but the mother and boyfriend were either extremely cheerful or doing their best to act as if they were. They smiled, laughed—and deliberately avoided eye contact with any of us there on the prolife side. I’ve heard so many women talk about how much they’d love to have grandchildren. Some are desperate enough to start talking about their kids’ pets as grandkids. What would it be like to talk yourself out of grandkids?

The women who breezed by the quickest were well-dressed, on their way to or from work, and evidently just picking up birth control. Those in PJs and flip-flops were there for an abortion, and often entered more slowly. But how many women in the loose-fitting clothes and sandals had originally visited in slacks and high heels?

The only other time I had been to a clinic was when I was a child, and the women looked so much older than me. It was easier to distance myself from what was happening then. These were old people doing things I couldn’t fathom. Now, some of the women I was saw were my age, and most were younger. I saw a girl who could have been ten years younger than me, coming in with her mom. I began to realize that whether I acknowledged it or not, this was my world. The people coming in and out were Americans overlapping with me in space and time. I could have been one of them, leaving behind a medical record and my first, or eighth, child.

Abortion has ingrained itself so thoroughly in our culture that abusive boyfriends and supposedly loving mothers often pressure young women into the same decision. I saw only a single time point in a drama that had started long before. We have got to get engaged so much earlier in this process, so a child’s life doesn’t come down to keeping or rejecting a certain card on a certain day. We’ve got to build a culture where abortion is unthinkable. Where parents decide to be the stewards of their children’s education. Where a girl doesn’t rely on a twerp telling her she’s hot because her dad’s told her he loves her. Where a twenty-something proudly wears a “Virginity Rocks” t-shirt. Where God’s definition of marriage is celebrated.

There is this blessing in the midst of the pain: the further our culture erodes, the more distinct the options become.

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August 2, 2012 by Hannah

Regressive Progressivism

Freedom can be inconvenient. It can demand things of us we’d rather not give, and demand us to think when we’d rather coast. But it’s better than the alternative.

Noah Webster defined a slave as:

“1. A person who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who has no will of his own, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another…

“2. One who has lost the power of resistance; or one who surrenders himself to any power whatever; as a slave to passion, to lust, to ambition…”

If we refuse to think, others will do our thinking for us. If we cede our right to conscience, the battle is over. Without the ability to personally decide and act upon what we believe to be right and true, we will be utterly defenseless. What’s “right,” or “politically correct,” will then be what those who rule us determine it to be. This is the logical result of relativism: alternate realities must reconcile somehow, and force is the simple, direct method.

All this is nothing new. The current administration’s slogan may be “Forward,” but it’s leading us down a path rejected centuries ago. Collectivism? State-induced infanticide? That’s so 5th century. Progressives are regressing.

Of course there’s the argument that new civilizations need new methods. But we Americans already vetted and rejected these long ago.

It’s ironic that President Obama would deliver his “You Didn’t Build That” speech in Virginia, because this is where we already put collectivism on trial. It didn’t go so well. The Jamestown colony nearly starved. As Jamestown Secretary Raphe Hamor wrote in a letter in 1614:

“[F]ormerly, when our people were fedde out of the common store and laboured jointly in the manuring of the ground, and planting corne, glad was that man that could slippe from his labour, nay the most honest of them in a generall businesse, would not take so much faithfull and true paines, in a weeke, as now he will doe in a day, neither cared they for the increase, presuming that howsoever their harvest prospered, the generall store must maintain them, by which meanes we reaped not so much corne from the labours of 30 men, as three men have done for themselves…”

If a colonist was assured a share in the reapings, why should he break his back bringing it in? The trouble was, not enough food was brought in. Killing the profit motive killed the profit.

As Mr. Hamor further explained:

“Sir Thomas Dale hath taken a new course, throughout the whole Colony, by which meanes, the generall store… shall not be charged with any thing: and this it is, he hath allotted to every man in the Colony, three English Acres of cleere Corne ground, which every man is to mature and tend, being in the nature of Farmers… and they are not called unto any service or labor belonging to the Colony, more then one moneth in the yeere, which shall neither be in seede time, or in Harvest, for which, doeing no other duty to the Colony, they are yearly to pay into the store two barrells and a halfe of Corne: there to be reserved to keep new men… thereby the lives of many shall not onely be preserved, but also themselves kept in strength and heart, able to performe such businesses, as shall be imposed upon them: and thus shall also the former charge be well saved, and yet more businesse effected.”

When a wise Jamestown governor abolished collectivism and put each colonist in charge of his own life, the colony thrived. Over two hundred years later, the Founders encouraged personal ingenuity, for example by placing Article 1, Section 8 in the Constitution. It gives Congress the power “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

Instead of creating bloated agencies such as the National Endowment of the Arts or the National Science Foundation which redistribute funds bled from the productive private sector, the Founders created an environment where an individual could protect and benefit from his own ideas.

But, of course, that required that an individual himself be protected. “Intention to abort” was first grounds for conviction in Maryland in 1652, and Virginia classified abortion as murder in 1710. The Declaration of Independence affirms each American’s “right to life,” and throughout American history this was increasingly interpreted as encompassing unborn children. By 1965, abortion was illegal in all 50 states. Roe v. Wade turned the clock backward. We regressed from what we already knew.

In May, 1857 the American Medical Association appointed a Committee on Criminal Abortion. It investigated the causes of criminal abortion and ways to reduce them, presenting three major findings about “this general demoralization”:

“The first of these causes is a widespread popular ignorance of the true character of the crime — a belief, even among mothers themselves, that the foetus is not alive till after the period of quickening.

“The second of the agents alluded to is the fact that the profession themselves are frequently supposed careless of foetal life…

“The third reason of the frightful extent of this crime is found in the grave defects of our laws, both common and statute, as regards the independent and actual existence of the child before birth, as a living being. These errors, which are sufficient in most instances to prevent conviction, are based, and only based, upon mistaken and exploded medical dogmas. With strange inconsistency, the law fully acknowledges the foetus in utero and its inherent rights, for civil purposes; while personally and as criminally affected, it fails to recognize it, and to its life as yet denies all protection.”

After hearing these findings, the Association adopted resolutions “against such unwarrantable destruction of human life.” This remained the official position of the Association until 1970.

How far we’ve fallen. Redistribution is so widespread it’s become commonplace, and on August 1, 2012, the Health and Human Services’s mandate that all insurance companies cover sterilizations, abortifacients, birth control, and abortion took effect.

George Washington’s words ring true today:

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own… The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission.”

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July 31, 2012 by Hannah

Sacred Cows and Holy Cows

The following article was originally published by Illinois Review.

When President Obama questioned a business owner’s role in the success of his company, he questioned more than who gets credit for what. He questioned private property itself. If “you didn’t build that,” do you really even own it?

As grand as the Great Pyramids and the Roman Coliseum are, there’s something profoundly unsettling on reflecting that they were built on the backs of slaves. If you and I were properly indoctrinated, we’d feel the same indignation when we looked at the Sears Tower or the Space Needle.

Because, we’re told, businesses are the Bain of our existence. Our employer may press a paycheck into our sweaty, calloused hands, but he’s paying only a fraction of what is rightfully ours. We’ll claim the whole shebang when the workers unite. Then we’ll collectivize… and restratify?

President Obama’s administration isn’t hostile to all businesses, only those that don’t toe the line. If things continue as they have been, a business’s position in the heap will depend on their leaders’ ideology. Everything belongs to the federal government, but that need not be overemphasized if everyone plays their part. The divide between private and public can be blurred when the government and the businesses’ values are aligned.

Rahm Emanuel may take issue with Chick-fil-A, but he certainly doesn’t have a problem with another cow-bedecked chain. When Jostein Solheim became the new CEO of the company, he pointed out: “My mantra that I’ve repeated a hundred times since starting at Ben & Jerry’s is: ‘Change is a wonderful thing. The world needs dramatic change to address the social and environmental challenges we are facing. Values led businesses can play a critical role in driving that positive change. We need to lead by example, and prove to the world that this is the best way to run a business. Historically, this company has been and must continue to be a pioneer to continually challenge how business can be a force for good and address inequities inherent in global business.”

As Benjamin Bull from American Thinker has pointed out, Ben & Jerry’s can sell “Hubby-Hubby” or “A-ppley Ever After” ice cream to promote homosexual “marriage,” but Don Cathy of Chick-fil-A’s better not breathe the faintest murmur against the practice. It’s “Have it your way” as long as it’s their way, and “I’m lovin’ it” as long it advances the agenda flavor of the day.

What’s most important isn’t the ability for a company to survive without government, but it’s willingness to cohabitate with it. Anything’s sustainable, as long as there’s taxpayers to pay for it. General Motors went bankrupt and sacrificed the value of its employees’ pensions, the Chevy Cruze is quite literally going up in flames, but what difference does it make? General Electric maintains a close interdependency with the Obama administration, and its justifications max out the baloney meter, but what’s the impetus to change? Success as a business is guaranteed, when the proper political connections are made.

All this can last as long as Americans are willing to contribute without being allowed to choose, and as long as there’s enough hosts to support the hangers-on. Not to worry. As President Obama said, “There are a whole bunch of hard-working people out there.”

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July 26, 2012 by Hannah

Planned Parenthood’s War on Women

This article was originally published by Illinois Review.

There’s a two-tier system of abortions in the U.S.: those for the haves, and those for the have-nots. President Obama may fundraise for Planned Parenthood, but he’d never send his daughters there. Who would, if they could send them anywhere else?

The Left’s public enthusiasm for Sanger’s brainchild plasters splashy wallpaper on prison walls and plants a smiley face on an urn.

Planned Parenthood is corrupt to the core. Just look at their marketing. The more sexually active the population, the more Planned Parenthood stands to profit. Expecting Planned Parenthood to give abstinence information is like waiting for McDonald’s to hand out dieting advice. It may talk about “safe sex,” but not even “protected sex” halts the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. No matter. This isn’t about health; it’s about sales. If people want birth control, Planned Parenthood can sell it to them. When the birth control fails, they can sell them an abortion. And, while Planned Parenthood promotes equal opportunity sexual activity (females with females, males with males) we can’t neglect females-with-males, because that’s what keeps the abortion stream going.

It gets worse. The standard of care is that if a patient is going to undergo a procedure, they should give informed consent. This implies two things: that the patient has been adequately informed of the risks and benefits of the procedure, and that they are freely choosing to carry out the procedure. Planned Parenthood can market to the desperate mother who feels she must have an abortion at any cost, or the mother who needs convincing.

Former Planned Parenthood staff have confessed the levels of manipulation they have used to convince a woman to abort. Even when this line isn’t crossed, there’s still a highly emotional decision happening, with possible pressure from family, friends, husband, boyfriend, or pimp. But if you have been sexually exploited or emotionally manipulated, don’t expect Planned Parenthood to help you. As Live Action has abundantly demonstrated, implausible deniability even in cases as clear-cut as sex trafficking is alive and well at Planned Parenthood.

Adequate information is another fiction. While claiming “We’re here to give you the medically-accurate information you need to decide what is best for you,” Planned Parenthood misrepresents the inherent risk involved in having an abortion. Their website states, “Abortion is legal in the U.S. and is one of medicine’s safest procedures.”

Given the fact that many medical procedures are no more than skin deep, such as removing a mole, it’s surprising that the organization would make such a bald-faced claim. But then, those kinds are less likely to be suspected. No supporting information is given to support this claim, and the probability of various complications from abortion is not presented. One key risk factor that gets inadequate treatment is late-term abortions. All of the women and girls presented in Planned Parenthood’s featured tutorial video on in-clinic abortions are 14 weeks or less pregnant, and none has even an inkling of a baby bump.

While 88% of abortions are done within the first trimester of a child’s life, Planned Parenthood provides abortions through the third trimester. It makes sense to have one tutorial directed toward women at an earlier stage of pregnancy, but where is the tutorial for women further along? Toward the end of the video, the calm, measured voice of the narrator promises that Planned Parenthood will provide referrals for women who experience complications from their abortion.

Elsewhere, it’s claimed that abortions through 20 weeks are 11 times safer than childbirth, but that after that abortion and natural childbirth have equal risk. Again, no evidence is given to substantiate this claim. Instead of bracing for serious complications, wouldn’t it be better if women were told there are viable options beyond abortion?

The results of a procedure depend not only on the inherent risk, but also on the skill of the individual physician. The average rate of mishap for a certain procedure may be very low, but with a careless physician it will be very high. But a Planned Parenthood patient shouldn’t expect to know anything about their abortionist before they show up. If she was going to a doctor or a dentist for the first time, she could look up their name, specialty, and most likely even their picture online. Not with Planned Parenthood. The Illinois Planned Parenthood website assures potential clients:

“For nearly 90 years Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) has been Illinois’ most trusted provider of reproductive health care. Our skilled health care professionals in the Chicago area and central Illinois work to ensure that each woman receives personal, sensitive and confidential care in a professional setting. All of our physicians are board certified or board eligible in Obstetrics and Gynecology or board certified in Family Medicine.”

It declines to list anything more than this, so it’s impossible for a first-time visitor to research their physician by name. Clients put their lives into the hands of a complete stranger. If abortionists were gifted physicians, wouldn’t they be proud to list their credentials publicly?

Placing clinics in low-income neighborhoods increases Planned Parenthood’s access to minorities, but it also removes accountability and ready access to emergency personnel and resources. Of course, even great physicians sometimes make mistakes, which is why hospitals regularly hold Morbidity & Mortality conferences. It’s here that the medical staff discusses cases that went wrong so that the core issues can be identified and mended.

For abortionists running solo practices, who provides this level of accountability? Are they ever questioned by their medical peers on their techniques, or botches? The ghastly findings in Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s abortion practice in Philadelphia last year spurred nine abortion clinic inspections in Illinois. Some hadn’t been inspected for over 15 years, and two were closed because of what was found. The inspections stopped short of any Planned Parenthood clinics, however, because these clinics are not licensed or inspected due to their similarity to doctor’s offices. This includes the clinic where Tonya Reaves was treated.

Tonya Reaves Planned ParenthoodIf the Planned Parenthood clinics had been adequately monitored, might Tonya Reaves be alive today? How many abortion clinics have emergency plans? Who vets the skill levels of physicians applying for jobs? Is the convenient location of clinics enough justification for their isolation from trauma units?

If Planned Parenthood of Illinois had fully informed Tonya Reaves of the risks she faced in her second-trimester abortion, would she have continued with her decision? It’s a question we will never know. But each woman should be given a fully informed choice. When it comes to abortion, it’s not just a woman’s body that’s at stake: it can be her life.

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July 24, 2012 by Hannah

The Root of Law

The following article was originally published by Illinois Review.

When a small band of American colonists took on the world superpower of their day, they didn’t speak from a position of military superiority. They also didn’t cite a Rasmussen poll or make an emotional appeal. They presented the facts: King George III’s actions assaulted God’s laws.

Their actions weren’t based on a moral majority; they were based on a moral authority. This appeal to a higher law is not to be underestimated. The Founders were deeply motivated by a Judeo-Christian worldview which showed that the unchanging God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the definition of all that was good, and that He had revealed absolute truth by embedding it in each person’s soul, and providing a written, unchanging account of His Word. The Founders freely acknowledged the role that Judeo-Christianity played in the framing of this new nation’s laws. As John Adams said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” James Wilson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice and signer of the Constitution, said, “Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine… Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.”

According to Judeo-Christianity, each person has inherent worth because he is created in God’s image. But because man is fallen, he is not perfectible in this life. God is the ultimate authority, and no man is “above the law.” Anyone’s actions can be weighed against the ideal that God provided. The Founders established a system where all laws were compared to the Constitution, and, ultimately, to the absolute law of God. Americans could pursue a “more perfect” union by studying the ideal God provided for their nature and human systems and work to more closely approach the ideal. The Founders’ understanding of this and their first-hand experience with a tyrant allowed them to build a system that affirmed personal freedom and provided a limited government with separated powers. They gave us something they had not inherited from the Crown: a Constitution.

The words of our Declaration and Constitution were not intended to molder behind glass; they were intended to be read and understood by every American citizen. They can stand up to detailed legal scrutiny, but they can also be grasped by someone who wants to understand the Founders’ original intent. Interpreting the Constitution isn’t a privilege reserved for nine men in black robes; it’s something each of us should do. How else can the policeman, soldier, judge, or President’s oath to uphold the Constitution have any meaning? How can any of us obey a law we don’t understand?

The genius of the Founders’ system is evident, even as we see it crumbling through misuse. A person did not have to be a Jew or a Christian to survive and thrive in America, but he did need to respect the principles that governed the nation’s founding: principles such as the equality of all people before the law, the right to own private property, and the requirement for multiple witnesses to testify in criminal proceedings.

Law was not arbitrary, but purposeful. Laws could be found to be good or bad based on how they compared to the highest law of the land, and the Law of God. Even after many of our leaders ceased to be personally guided by Judeo-Christianity, a latent memory of this worldview maintained the original design of our nation.

All that is changing. Clay and iron are being mixed, and the amalgam is brittle. Various worldviews overlap to a point, but some of their core properties are completely incompatible. One must gain the ascendancy. A battle of worldviews is taking place in America, and it’s unclear which will dominate. Six of the major players are Biblical Judeo-Christianity, Secular Humanism (“liberalism”), Marxism-Leninism (“Leftism”), Cosmic Humanism (“New Age”), Postmodernism, and Islam.

All offer very different approaches to ethics, history, law, theology, and other aspects of a worldview. If Judeo-Christianity offers a bounded sandbox for statecraft, Marxism-Leninism stokes animosities between sandcarriers and sandcrafters, Islam demands a pre-fab home, and Postmodernism questions the existence of sand. Since many of the worldviews deny the very existence of God, they lift up man to the throne of absolute judgment. They see truth not as a fixed ideal, but as an evolving mass, which the more ambitious seek to shape. All have different answers to the question “What is the basic nature of man?” which is why they differ so completely on questions such as the ethics of taxation and redistribution, union lobbies, abortion, and homosexuality. Many worldviews do not see the Constitution as a guide to understand ultimate reality or a protective barrier that applies the truth discovered in a triumph over tyranny, but shackles on human development.

Several key battlegrounds between the worldviews are the education, culture, and politics. The trend in these institutions is not for a person to critically evaluate ideas on their merits, but to find the consensus and conform to it. Our educational system could be a location for the free interchange of ideas, but more often it radically transforms a person’s worldview by making full use of authority structures. The process that began inside the classroom can continue outside, if a person does not critically evaluate the messages of worldviews blazing to them through films, celebrities, and the news feed. Finally, as Sharia Law’s codified dhimmitude so eloquently demonstrates, a person does not have to convert to be manipulated and subjugated. A worldview can dominate others by occupying positions of power, even if its adherents are in the minority. Because the laws of our nation reflect our lawmakers, as the elected officials go, so goes the nation.

If we are to reclaim our nation, we must do what our Founders did. We must compare our laws and our leaders to the ultimate standard, draw our own conclusions, and take action. This country is too precious to surrender.

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