There’s a great post over at the Belgravia Dispatch on France’s efforts to undercut us pre-war. It’s been clear to some that France hasn’t been our friend for a long time (probably since the end of the Cold War). Now it’s becoming clear to any who are willing to face truth.

I think part of the reason many are so unwilling to face this is that international opposition was one of the big reasons many gave at home to oppose the war. But it’s becoming increasingly obvious that many who opposed the war did so out of reflexive anti-Americanism and self-interest, not out of any thoughtful, reasoned or principled opposition to what we were doing or the way we were doing it.

And in case anyone thinks it’s just the French leadership that doesn’t like us, spend a little time over at Merde In France (warning- vulgarity).

I have been informed that the last Sermon of the Week suffered from technical problems, that caused it to skip periodically. This week’s sermon unfortunately suffers from the same problem. I’ll get it fixed on this one if I can, and I’ve isolated the issue so it shouldn’t affect future sermons, but I’m not going to post the broken one this week unless and until I can get it fixed. Sorry about that.

Halloween was last night. Katie went as a ladybug. The evening was fairly busy, although not as busy as some places in Limon. The street up from us was jam-packed, probably because almost every house had their lights on. Most the houses on our street didn’t, so it was pretty slow.

Being a Christian, and being a pastor, I get asked questions from time to time about Halloween- isn’t it devil-worship? How can I let my child participate? Should I hand out Bibles to kids instead of candy?

We need to get away from this idea of sin. My mere proximity to something that someone else uses sinfully does not contaminate me with their sin. Nobody I know worships Satan on October 31st by dressing up in costumes and going house to house for candy. I do know a few occultists (former occultists, actually- they grew up and got jobs) but they were doing entirely different things that night, very distateful things. So just because some (very few) people engage in occult practices on a particular day, I should deprive my child of a wholly unrelated activity on that same day?

We need to be careful of the Pharisaical attitude towards sin. They thought you could be corrupted by mere proximity to something sinful going on. That’s why they went after Jesus all the time for eating and drinking with prostitutes and tax collectors. Jesus responded to them by teaching them that it’s what comes out of a man that corrupts him, not what goes in. Proverbs 4:23 tells us that the issues of life come from the heart. Luke 6:45 says that evil actions come from an evil heart, and good actions from a good heart. So, I cannot simply stumble into sin. Sin would flow from a heart that hates God. Therefore to evaluate a particular action, I have to evaluate the motives that drove that action. 1 Corinthians 8 is also relevant- eating meats offered to idols is only sinful if I believe I am engaging in idolatry by doing so. If I recognize that the idols are nothing and thank God for the meat, there is no sin. (There’s still the issue of the weaker brother, but that’s a different question.)

So, the only way Trick-or-Treating would be sinful, is if someone actually thought they were engaging in occult activity by doing so. If they thought they were having a fun time dressing up in funny costumes and getting candy, then that’s all they’re doing. Sin’s not in the thing. Sin’s in the heart.

That doesn’t make it easer to avoid. That makes it a lot harder. Because now I have to stop focusing on things like rock music and Halloween and booze and what movies I watch, and start focusing on my own pride and envy and lust and bitterness. It would sure be easy if I could just stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and be free from sin as a result.

I just got called by somebody, I think Newsweek, to take a poll. First time that’s happened. It was about Bush, and the war. The pollster also asked my about my religion, and about what impact I thought religion had on medical health.

On the subject of the war, they asked a question like this:

“How concerned are you that the US might get bogged down in Iraq for years with little or no progress?”

That seems pretty leading to me. I considered answering in the affirmative (choices were, Very Concerned, Somewhat Concerned or Not At All Concerned) because the way the question is worded, well, sure I’m concerned that it might happen. But then I realized, they’re going to spin this as a country that is doubtful about whether we should be there at all. Of course they also asked me that question- should we be pulling our troops out? And naturally I said no. But the headline will be the question that gives them the result they’re looking for. And it’s not like reading a poll- there’s a guy on the phone, and you’ve got to answer and you don’t feel like you can take all night thinking about it. So I made my answer a little more positive than I might have if I hadn’t been wary of their motives. Is that lying?

On the subject of religion and health, another interesting thing happened. I don’t believe in faith healing, and I believe in praying for people’s health, including my own, primarily to teach myself to submit to God’s will. God certainly can heal people, and sometimes chooses to heal people through the means of prayers for that person, but I don’t pray expecting that to happen. My prayers don’t change God’s will. My prayers change me.

But again, the questions were phrased in a funny way. I expect I answered the questions approximately the same was as the average audience member at a Benny Hinn show (and yes, I meant to use the word “show”). Have I prayed for people’s health? Yes. Does religion have an impact on people’s health? Yes. Do I think spiritual or religious matters and medical matters bear on each other? Or do I think religion and medicine should be kept separate? Oh boy, that’s all we need- another “wall of separation.” Answer- they bear on each other.

Why don’t they just say it? Do you think religion has anything to do with anything? Or should it be kept separate from everything? Practiced only secretly at night in the cellar? Don’t just pray in the closet- sing your hymns and preach your sermons in there too?

One step at a time- get God out of everything. And anyone who disagrees is a trailer-park-livin’, snake-handlin’, big-haired televangelist-watchin’ moron.

Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions. We’ll see when the poll comes out.

The Washington Post has a story on an attack against American troops that claimed the life of two soldiers. The article repeatedly mentions, in the tagline and in the story itself, that US combat deaths after an end to major combat was declared by Bush now exceed those before. They apparently think this is significant; presumably it is proof of a ‘quagmire’.

But to look at it another way, isn’t it really a testimony to the extreme effectiveness of the war itself before May 1st? Is it that there have been so many deaths after the war, or that there were so few during it?

Jonathan Schanzer has an article on the smuggling tunnels that Palestinians use to bring weapons from Egypt into Gaza. He claims Egypt is complicit, and I’ve heard that charge other places too.

Egypt is supposed to be one of those ‘moderate’ Muslim states Seems to me that a great way it could prove that it is would be for it to help Israel destroy those tunnels.

According to the Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs has authorized a $15M purchase of a canyon near Colorado Springs, for the purpose of Open Space. This, for those of you not familiar with the silliness that passes for development debate these days, is the insistence of some people that municipal governments take land out of production (at taxpayers’ expense, natch) so that people who are inclined to enjoy the outdoors (at taxpayers’ expense) can do so.

Land wasn’t in production, you say? Why’d they have to pay $15M for it then?

Anyway, the bit of the article that caught my attention was this:

The city used an increasingly popular financing tool called certificates of participation, or COPS, to finance the deal. A city-controlled nonprofit company will take on the debt and lease the land back to the city. Without such an arrangement, the Colorado Constitution says new government debt must be voter-approved.

So, the Colorado Constitution says you can’t do what they’re doing without a vote. So they just call it something different, play a shell game with the money (Enron anyone?) and satisfy the eco-whiners.

Also from the article:

Glenn [One of only two city council members voting against the purchase] has said he opposes the deal because he sees the financing method as an effort to circumvent the state constitution.

I sure wish I could get the city to fund my pastimes.

One of the leading “antiwar” groups, ANSWER, who has been organizing and funding all sorts of antiwar protests and activities, has openly come out for the other side. It’s not that they want peace. They just want us to lose. They’re rooting for the Baathists and terrorists over Americans. Here’s the money quote:

The anti-war movement here and around the world must give its unconditional support to the Iraqi anti-colonial resistance.

Eugene Volokh tipped me off.

Why spend $32 million advertising the new twenty dollar bills?? It’s not like there’s competition.

The Russians demonstrate remarkably good sense!

An economics professor of mine once used Russia as proof that economic success was not a function of the intelligence of the people (India, BTW, was proof that it wasn’t a function of hard work either). Russia, a country in which chess is a spectator sport, was an economic basket case at the time he made the comment.

They’re still a basket case, but that intelligence may finally be doing them some serious good. Dumping on the Kyoto treaty, and passing a flat tax- awesome. My favorite part of this is how mad it’s made the EU.

They [the Russians] seem prepared to join the argument not simply on the grounds of their narrow self-interest but on the question of whether those who think we are destroying the earth might just be wrong.

Whee! The world is such a fun place sometimes.