Yesterday my son's band kid go home played at the Surf and Skate Fest at Asbury Park. When he got home from the gig at around 11 PM Christine and I spent some time talking to him about his day's experiences. Surf and Skate is a 3 day festival of music built around the surfing, skating and BMXing youth culture of our area. One of the features is a battle of the bands put on by East Coast Concerts in which local bands play and the top rated bands over several nights get to play at the fest with all these well known bands. (I have never heard of any of these bands, but the kids around here love them). Anyway, Rob's band got one of the coveted spots. They reportedly had a good gig. They are going to get reviewed by a zine and two radio stations talked to them about playing some of their songs. I was happy for him. I am not happy with certain elements of the scene my son is into, in particular, the bands all have foul mouths. But there are some aspects that are quite alright. The music he plays is fun stuff the kids like to dance to, not the dark stuff I know some of the kids are into. That's a good thing. A lot of the kids in the scene are what Rob calls "straight edge", which means they don't smoke, drink, or do promiscuous sex. Rob claims to be "straight edge" and he has never given me a reason not to believe him.

Anyway, as I was reading through the program he brought home last night, I was struck again by what a mission field the kids of today are. There are so many different sub-cultures that are kids find themselves in. The sad thing is that I think being a church kid might be just another youth sub-culture that is in its own little bubble. The particular sub-culture my son occupies seems to have a spirituality, and an inner longing, however I don't know to many people who have figured out how to tap into that spirituality and point the kids to Christ. I think what is needed is another Jesus Revolution, like what took place among the hippies in the 70's. If a person called to the mission field of today's youth could figure out how to cross the cultural divide and bring Jesus to these kids, we could have a revival on our hands.

This poem is posted in commeration of the tremendous events that took place today in the center of Bagdad:

Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792-1822

God Bless America!

A follow up to Liz Smith's revelation about the elite's hatred of religious faith. I especially love the president"s perspective on prayer. I am glad to see he has not fallen into the "God on our side" error.

Sweet Hour of Prayer

By Lawrence Henry 
Published 4/7/2003 12:02:00 AM 

Another Perspective

The first time I got together with Ron Crews, the president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, we started talking about Attorney General John Ashcroft, whom we both admire.

"I see the hand of the Lord" in Ashcroft's being Attorney General, Ron said. He cited the plane crash that killed Ashcroft's Senatorial opponent Mel Carnahan, the sympathy vote that swung toward Carnahan's widow, and Ashcroft's own forbearance in campaigning after the crash and then in declining to challenge the election's result. "God put him where he is today for a reason," Ron said. 

This, of course, is the kind of talk that drives secular liberals batty. They interpret it to mean: Ashcroft thinks he has God on his side. Ashcroft is trying to impose a theocracy on the United States.

And it gets worse, of course, when that kind of talk applies to the President, George W. Bush, another born-again Christian. I have heard absolute spitting contempt of President Bush expressed on National Public Radio and on the BBC by Europeans who regard religion as the cultural companion of NASCAR and the Big Mac. Gore Vidal, speaking with gossip columnist Liz Smith a few days back, said, "Mr. Bush is a 'come to Jesus' kind of fellow who believes he is doing God's work. And it explains why Tony Blair has gone along with him. He, too, is a crypto Roman Catholic and a secret Jesus lover. Together they are very dangerous."

Sorry, Mr. Vidal. There's nothing "crypto" about it, and it's no secret. The website Pray for George W. Bush has been organized since September 17, 2000. The Presidential Prayer Team (my wife has joined this one) provides a weekly Internet newsletter, radio broadcast segments, flags, mailers, "prayer reminders," an "adopt a troop" section, and links to news articles. 

Neither organization claims any official endorsement, sponsorship, or link with the administration or any part of the government. Yet the connection between George Bush and his Christian supporters is very real. He signals it from time to time, with a twinkle in his eye. In the last State of the Union message, as the President began to describe funding for his faith-based initiative, he said, of faith, "There is power…" And then he paused. "Wonder-working power," he added. This is part of the chorus of an old gospel hymn. Those of us who knew, knew. 

Prayer, and the connection to Godly power, is widely misunderstood. And it seems that it doesn't matter how often we believers explain it, it will be misunderstood. But I'll try again.

The essential prayer is, "Thy will, not mine, be done." I'm not sure if this formulation goes back to the pre-Christian Jewish tradition, but for Christians, it's clear where it comes from: Jesus's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, before his crucifixion. Matthew 26:39: "…He threw himself on the ground and prayed, 'Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want."

We pray -- and George W. Bush prays -- not for God to help us to victory, but for knowledge of God's will for us and for the power to carry out that will.

Bush himself described the relationship of the United States to God and to prayer this way: "Since America's founding, prayer has reassured us that the hand of God is guiding the affairs of this nation. We have never asserted a special claim on His favor, yet we've always believed in God's presence in our lives…Prayer reminds us that a great people must be humble before God, searching for wisdom -- constantly searching for wisdom -- from the Almighty."

Those of us who live by prayer know the experience of God sending his power to us, the feeling of having our lives on a rocket boost of joy, and having things done for us that we could not do for ourselves. We also know the feeling of going wrong, of feeling alienated from God, or even of having God rather pointedly showing us where we've gone astray.

And we wouldn't ever again trade this experience for its opposite number, the life of the ego, of panic, of social striving, of anxiety, of dread, of fragile achievements temporary as castles in sand.

We do occasionally give in to the sin of teasing unbelievers. Like when Rush Limbaugh says, "Talent on loan from God!" in his biggest, most stentorian carnie barker's voice, we know how liberals take it. Yet Rush just states a simple truth. All talent -- even Gore Vidal's -- has only been loaned, never owned.

Lawrence Henry is a writer in North Andover, Massachusetts. 

I thought this was interesting read from Gossip Columnist, Liz Smith in the April 4, 2003 New York Post. It is interesting to see how the cultural elites view devout faith.

April 4, 2003 -- 'YE SHALL hear of wars and rumors of wars," says the Good
Book in Matthew 24:6. 

Unfortunately, sometimes we hear more than just rumors. But speaking of that,
ever since the Oscars happened in L.A., there have been rumors having to do with
Michael Moore's anti-war, anti-Bush speech. This won kudos from peaceniks
and boos and hisses from many, many others. But the story going round is that
none other than Gore Vidal himself wrote or masterminded the speech given
by Moore, the winner of the Best Documentary "Bowling for Columbine." 

Famous author Vidal has his own book out from Avalon and The Nation, titled
"Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta." He tells me it is doing
well and has sold 100,000 copies. But when it comes to the Michael Moore rumor,
Gore has this to say: "I'm flattered. No, I didn't have anything to do with his
speech although I did see him recently." When I inquired why and where they had
met, Gore, who is living quietly in Los Angeles for the nonce, told me the
following:

"Some of us, a group of like-minded souls, got together just to discuss
informally who we might back to be president in the next election. We want a
leader who won't lie to us. Mr. Bush is a 'come to Jesus' kind of fellow who
believes he is doing God's work. And it explains why Tony Blair has gone
along with him. He, too, is a crypto Roman Catholic and a secret Jesus lover.
Together they are very dangerous." (Vidal loves the excessive statement!) 

I asked Gore if his group had indeed come up with anyone to run against
George Bush in 2004? He said, "Well, we don't believe anyone currently in
political life is electable. I'll tell you who is electable - don't laugh
- Oprah! Now I don't know how she'd do as a leader, but surely it would
be an improvement."

A friend of mine sent this story to me by e-mail. Very inspiring . . . .

Martin Savidge of CNN embedded with the 1st Marine battalion was talking
with 4 young marines near his foxhole this morning live on CNN. He had
been telling the story of how well the marines had been looking out for
and taking care of him since the war started. He went on to tell about the
many hardships the marines had endured since the war began and how they all
look after one another. 

He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders
and they could use his video phone to call home. The 19 year old marine
next to him asked Martin if he would allow his platoon sergeant to use his call
to call his pregnant wife back home whom he had not been able to talk to in
three months. A stunned Savidge who was visibly moved by the request
shook his head and the young marine ran off to get the sergeant. 

Savidge recovered after a few seconds and turned back to the three young
marines still sitting with him and asked which one of them would like to
call home first, the marine closest to him responded with out a moments
hesitation " Sir, if is all the same to you we would like to call the
parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl Brian Buesing of Cedar Key,
Florida who was killed on 3-23-03 near Nasiriya to see how they are doing". 

At that Martin Savidge totally broke down and was unable to speak. All
he could get out before signing off was "where do they get young men like
this". 

Those wacky Russians . . . you never know what they are going to come up with next.

13:47 2003-01-31

Is Hussein Owner of Crashed UFO?

An UFO-related incident that occurred 
four years ago poses a troubling question whether any kind of cooperation is 
possible between Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and extraterrestrials,” UFOlogist 
Joseph Trainor declared in his review UFO Roundup (issue 51 of December 
17, 2002). “On December 16, 1998, during Operation Desert Fox against Iraq, a 
video clip aired on CNN showed a UFO hovering over Baghdad; it moved away to 
avoid a stream of tracer anti-aircraft fire. At that time we all thought it was 
another UFO sighting, although captured on videotape. But now, ufologists think 
it was much more than a mere incident.

link to rest of article on pravda.