Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Dallas Morning News]

An Army Reserves sergeant studying at Dallas Baptist University was surprised this week to find the message “soldiers are murderers” spray painted on his Jeep Wrangler.Viktow Whitlow, a junior, had parked his Jeep on the campus at about 2 a.m. Wednesday and returned hours later to find his vehicle’s tires had been flattened, the seats slashed and “soldiers are murderers” spray painted in red across the hood.

“It’s disheartening to be honest with you,” he said. “It’s shocking that somebody would write something like that. It just makes me speechless.”

Mr. Whitlow, who recently spent two tours in Balad, Iraq, said he has no idea who vandalized his Jeep or why he was targeted.

“I actually worked in a medical treatment facility and we actually saved lives instead of taking them,” he said.

Read about it here.

[From me]

How terrible!  Whether you agree with the war or not, the men and women from our military protect us and allow for protests in our nation.  But if you disagree with the war don’t take it out on those serving.  They deserve our respect and honor. Plus this man was saving lives!  Whoever did this ought to be ashamed.

What do you think?

[Earned Media]

On Wednesday, August 27, police officers brutally arrested two teenage girls, ages 15 and 17, near Senator Obama’s Denver hotel. The young women, Julia Giacopuzzi and Jayne White, were writing messages in sidewalk chalk on the public sidewalk when the police officers rushed in and violently arrested the girls without warning or provocation. 

The girls are members of the pro-life youth organization Survivors, and were in Denver during the Democratic National Convention to call attention to Senator Barack Obama’s pro-abortion position as part of A Prayer for Change. 

Throughout the DNC, the youth of Survivors were using sidewalk chalk throughout the city of Denver with the permission of City Attorney David Fine and Denver Deputy Chief of Police John Lamb. It was understood by the young women that sidewalk chalk was an accepted medium, and they were given no warning by the police before being cuffed and dragged away.

Jayne White, age 17, was rushed from behind by a police officer and pushed face-down on the ground. He slammed his knee into the back of the young woman’s neck as she lay on the concrete without resisting. The officer forcefully pulled her arms behind her back and cuffed her. 

Miss White states, “I was peacefully sidewalk chalking when I was forcefully pushed to ground by a police officer from behind. As I was being cuffed on the ground, the police officer pushed his knee into the back of my neck. I was pulled roughly off the ground and taken away. I was given no warning to stop and was completely shocked when I was arrested. My back was throbbing from his knee.”

Julia Giacopuzzi, age 15, was surprised by a police officer twisting her arms behind her back and using them to lift her off the ground to be handcuffed.

Miss Giacopuzzi comments, “As I was sidewalk chalking, I was rushed by a police officer without warning and lifted up off the ground and was cuffed. I was then dragged by the police into the Westin Hotel.”

Read more here.

[From me]

I’m very pro-life but I’ve been critical of many of the protests I’ve seen.  But I don’t get how you can be arrested when you got permission for writing on a sidewalk with chalk.  My daughter writes on our driveway all of the time.  When you have wackos out to assassinate Obama, why are the police concerned about a couple of girls writing in chalk?  They look like real threats to national safety.

Also, why hasn’t the national media picked up on this?  Where is the ACLU?

What do you think?

[OC Register]

A new book recounts how Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ made O.C. a hotbed of protests in 1988. The handmade signs they carried made clear the reasons why hundreds of protestors descended on the MainPlace mall in Santa Ana on a Friday afternoon 20 years ago.

“Don’t Be Led Into Temptation.”

“Jesus is Not a Wimp.”

“The Bible, Not the Movie!”

On Aug. 19, 1988, “The Last Temptation Of Christ,” opened in Orange County one week after premiering in Los Angeles, New York and a few other cities. Director Martin Scorsese’s film project had become over the course of the ’80s one of the most controversial movies ever developed.

At the big Universal rally that summer, one of the speakers who drew the most attention was a 23-year-old from Santa Ana who had recently signed a recording contract with MCA, the parent company of Universal. Steve Gooden, now of Newport Beach, tore that contract up, saying he did so to take a stand for what he believed.

“I never made my million because I got blackballed,” Gooden says, laughing, of how his life changed that day. “Oh, gosh, I’ll never forget standing in front of those 30,000 people with all those major Christian broadcasters who said they’d stand with me.

“None of them did, not Jan and Paul (Crouch of Costa Mesa-based Trinity Broadcasting Network), none of them,” Gooden says. (The Crouches declined a request for an interview for this story.)

“I almost regret doing what I did,” says Gooden, who works in real estate now. “I wonder if I could have done more good if I’d stayed with (MCA) and worked from the inside.”

Read more here.

[From me]

Has it really been 20 years?  I remember this hub bub like it was yesterday.  To be fair, I never saw the movie.  But I heard it was just a bad movie- not evil-just bad with a weak story line.  

But the singer above got me to thinking.  I’ve been guilty even recently of saying I wouldn’t buy (Heinz) products because of their social stands.  Many of you corrected me and rightly so for my misguided thinking.  What if Mr. Gooden had not torn up his contract and had made a CD that sold millions?  What if God could have used him within the music industry to promote Jesus and Christian values?  Instead he was blackballed and had no voice.

I wonder if we tune people out with our whining and complaining?  (me included)  Didn’t Paul say:

Philippians 2:14 

Do everything without complaining or arguing

I wonder what would happen if we did work from within to change?

What do you think?

[The Atlantic]

At Tim Russert’s Kennedy Center memorial, members of the Westboro Baptist Church picketed and held placards cursing the belovedMeet the Press host for his Catholicism and tolerance of homosexuality.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I always liked Tim Russert.  I wouldn’t have expected the wackos from Westboro to show up at his memorial but I guess nothing should surprise me.  Tim Russert was not a homosexual activist.  He was a Catholic so his church teaches against homosexual behavior.  So why do the Phelps and the Westboro church feel the need to protest his memorial?  I think I know the answer (publicity) but do they even have a heart?

I wouldn’t protest at anyone’s funeral.  Even if they believed in everything opposite of me.  I didn’t rejoice when Sadam Hussein died.  I don’t want to see anyone perish–even the Phelps.  What kind of sick mind would protest at a families lowest point?  How does that display the love of Christ?  

Many of you know but if you are new to this site I interviewed Shirley Phelps-Roper the woman in the picture above 2 years ago.  You can watch my interview here.  

What do you think?