School Board Can Remove Pro-Communist Book

Miami-Dade County school libraries had 49 copies of a book praising life in Cuba before the school board voted to get rid of them. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling against the school board, so naturally the usual suspects are upset. I thought this was one of the right ways books could be removed from school libraries, but there’s a supreme court case from 1982 saying, according to the article, a school board does not have “the right to remove books from a school library if the board ‘disliked the ideas contained in it.'”

Really?

Academic Freedom Among Christians

Professor Richard Colling has taught that Christians can believe in evolution too, and he’s still teaching at a Christian college. Can you believe it? I’m kidding, but there were some calling for his dismissal. Apparently, things are working out for Colling now.

Spinning Christian History

The UK’s Channel 4 is running a series on Christian history, and Scottish Pastor Iain Campbell is blogging about it. The first episode argued Christianity was an anti-Semitic invention of the Apostle Paul. Iain writes, “History might demonstrate that some Christians have been against Jews; but the New Testament is decidedly for them. ‘God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew’, says Paul of Israel, and he anticipates a day when they – to quote one of the Hebrew prophets – will look on the one they pierced and mourn for him.”

Another episode tells us how bad the Reformation was and Protestants today [are] a sorry bunch (some Protestants have especially sorry grammar and spelling habits).

Do Not Be Afraid

When speaking up on campus. David French states:

When I speak on campus, one of the most frustrating experiences is hearing conservatives–and many faithful Christians–describe themselves as “silenced” or “afraid” to speak when there is no formal, legal barrier to their speech. . . . I hear these complaints, and don’t doubt their sincerity, but here is what these folks are really saying: “There are many things that I value far more than my conservative (or, sadly, Christian) principles, including the regard of all my peers, the ease of my academic career, and feeling welcome and accepted during the Thursday-Sunday party circuit. Please change the university so that I can speak my mind without any cost or consequence.”

He says it’s especially disappointing for Christians to complain, because the Bible teaches us not to fear such things, even to anticipate a struggle against the world’s wisdom. If God is for us, who can be against? What is light opposition compared to eternal weight of glory?

There won’t always be an England, after all

From the London Daily Mail: More news from what was once the land of the Venerable Bede, Duns Scotus, Thomas More, John Wesley, William Wilberforce, and C. S. Lewis:

A foster mother has been struck off the register for allowing a Muslim girl in her care to convert to Christianity.

The woman, who has looked after more than 80 children in the past ten years, is considering suing the council over the decision.

Do you think there would have been any problem if she had allowed a Christian child to convert to Islam?

Last April, they ruled that the girl, now 17, should stay away from church for six months.

No coercion was involved:

Of the Christian convert, she said: ‘I did initially try to discourage her. I offered her alternatives.

‘I offered to find places for her to practise her own religion. I offered to take her to friends and family.

‘But she said to me from the word go, ‘I am interested and I want to come.’ She sort of burst in.’

Somewhere an English World War II veteran is lying in a bed in a rest home, asking, “What did I fight to protect?”

Tip: Threedonia.

Ole Man Mose predicts*

As regular readers are aware by now, I am always correct when I predict the future.** This is not because I possess a spiritual gift or great wisdom, but because I’m the only person alive whose insanity perfectly matches reality.

Conservatives are all wondering about the same thing these days. “What will the Democrats do when their Stimulus Program crashes and burns? Will they admit defeat and try something sensible?”

No, of course not. This is what the Democrats will do, when unemployment is above 10% and large populations are living in tents and standing in food lines:

They will arrest former Pres. Bush and former VP Cheney, accuse them of high crimes and misdemeanors, and convene highly publicized show trials. The proceedings will be broadcast on large outdoor screens, for the benefit of those who no longer own TVs. A huge public relations campaign will be launched, for the purpose of amplifying public hatred toward Bush and Cheney.

This will be the circus which (along with government bread) will, they will hope, divert people from the failure of the Stimulus.

Once that’s over, they’ll take a page from FDR’s book and find a war to fight.

*If you’re too young to remember Li’l Abner, this reference will mean nothing to you. You should be ashamed of yourself.

**Except when predicting presidential elections.

American Lifestyles

The upper middle class can’t live in New York on $500,000. As almost sickening as that is, I still say government should not limit any private salary. They can set the pay for government jobs, and that’s it. They can offer government employees good health care, but keep it at that. They can set up IRAs for their people, but please don’t force me to invest in the government’s plan.

The Candle Indoors

Some candle clear burns somewhere I come by.

I muse at how its being puts blissful back

With yellowy moisture mild night’s blear-all black,

Or to-fro tender trambeams truckle at the eye.

By that window what task what fingers ply,

I plod wondering, a-wanting, just for lack

Of answer the eagerer a-wanting Jessy or Jack

There God to aggrándise, God to glorify.–

Come you indoors, come home; your fading fire

Mend first and vital candle in close heart’s vault:

You there are master, do your own desire;

What hinders? Are you beam-blind, yet to a fault

In a neighbour deft-handed? Are you that liar

And, cast by conscience out, spendsavour salt?

“The Candle Indoors” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Book Reviews, Creative Culture