Steve

I sure am enjoying reading and writing in this Blog. Thanks, guys.

Still am waiting for the promised arguments, pro and con, concerning the latest initiative in tax caps/spending caps or whatever it entailed. OK, OK, uncontested races, too!

If Jesus was just a man and not God come in the flesh, then he was not a good man, he was a freakin' liar.

Jack: Context? Let me rearrange the first sentence. Are the 9/11 murderers the moral equivalent to Mother Theresa? Why or why not? The consistent Marquis would say on a scale of 1- 10, both are zeros, or both are 10's. There is no way to judge between them because there is no Judge. What do you say?

If you say there is a moral difference-- a religious determination-- why doesn't that disqualify your statements concerning political matters on the inane separation of church and state invention? (Jack's trying to institute an antitheocracy!)

If morally indistinguishable; we'd all better watch out. The strongest and most ruthless are headed for the throne. Gandhi may expel the British, but cutthroats usurp the guns.

When the U.S. Articles of Conferderation proved inadequate for the task, our country's founders drafted the Constitution. It's acceptance was no slam dunk. Jay, Hamilton, and Madison wrote a whole bookful of essays to defend its adoption. Freshly independent Americans did not want another king or anything resembling one. Resistance was strong, but finally overcome. The Constitution became the archetypical law limiting the available power of the federal government that could be usurped by any individual or group.

As our Christian foundation continues to erode by judicial fiat, being replaced by a humanist model, the culture will lose its cohesive strength. As God's authority is rejected, all authority becomes delegitemized. The resulting conclusion is that the new triune god becomes me, myself, and I. I am the final authority, I determine what is good and evil. Screw you, Mom & Dad, teacher, cop, boss, laws, mores. All relevant cultural institutions will continue to fracture. (E Pluribus pluribus) God is dead, mankind is irrelevent, I am alone. (Any increase in psychological disorders over the last 40 years?) Intellect, with its now meaningless plethora of facts, gives way to feeling and experience. (Crudely and with much poetic license-- replacing the corpora quadrigemina with the corpora cavernosa-- the brain with the penis.) Since most people would prefer benevolent dictatorship to anarchy, the central government must assume more power ('evolving' constitution) to control the balkanization. Invariably, however, the benevolent are forced out by the cutthroats.

So take your pick. Study and compare the cultures that arose from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, atheistic/humanist, Pagan, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Shinto, or Martian philosophies. After forcing the Bible from our political scene, you still have all these other choices from which to pick and build upon.

Somewhere I read a little about your interest in increasing the quality of education and catching as many as possible who are falling through the cracks. I also share this interest. How would you approach this situation?

Lance: In your search, I would recommend reading from the Bible itself. Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs of the Old Testament. The Gospel of John and Romans of the New Testament.