Bill O'Reilly Defines 'Culture War' Absent Religion

After watching TV interviews of Bill O'Reilly plugging his new book Culture Warrior, I can summarize his definition of the 'Culture War' as being a divide between the majority-traditional Americans (his term) and the small minority of secular liberals who hate what America stands for. O'Reilly correctly points out that the mainstream media is biased in favor of these minority liberals. What I find most interesting is that O'Reilly defines the majority-traditional Americans as including people who are NOT religious (even including atheists), as well as including Americans of any and all religions (Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.).

To listen to O'Reilly, the 'Culture War' will be won by the majority once the majority realize they are the majority.

O'Reilly's 'Culture War' is NOT THE Culture War in which Christians are called to engage. Ironically, O'Reilly's war is a secular war; that's because he can define his war only in light of what he's capable of seeing via his secular worldview.

Below are a few excerpts from a promo for his Sep 22 interview with Barbara Walters on ABC's 20/20:

[Bill O'Reilly] has written six books, the most recent entitled, "Culture Warrior."

In an interview with Barbara Walters at his waterfront home in Long Island, N.Y., O'Reilly explained the "culture of war," the crux of his new book.

He said it was a war pitting traditional Americans -- those who believe the United States is noble -- against those who are secular progressives and believe the country is fundamentally flawed.

"It's the traditionalists who really want to keep the country pretty much the way it is," O'Reilly said. "Against the secular progressives who want drastic change. . They control the media." .

He even calls himself, "T-Warrior," short for "traditional warrior."

If it weren't for the media, O'Reilly says, there would be no ongoing debates over gay marriage or references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

According to O'Reilly, the media have created these controversies and Americans are overwhelmingly against gay marriage and support mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

"The media is really the balancing agent here between the 20 percent of Americans who are secular progressives, and about 60 percent who are traditionalists," O'Reilly said.

"I gotta expose it."

Swiss Euthanasia Group Demands Assisted Suicide for the Depressed

LONDON, September 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Swiss suicide organization that has helped to kill at least 54 British clients and uncounted others from around Europe, is in a test case in the country’s Supreme Court arguing that people suffering from depression or who are “tired of life” should be able to legally use the facility to end their lives.

Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas, the Zurich-based organisation said his group was seeking to overturn the Swiss law that allows them to assist only people with a terminal illness.

Following in the wake of the international conference of the Right to Die movement in Toronto earlier this month, the move has come as no surprise to euthanasia opponents, who say it has always been part of the plan to make assisted suicide and euthanasia legal for anyone who wants it.

Euthanasia advocate, Jonquière, argued that a subtler method will be to have euthanasia legalized in the Netherlands for people who are "tired of living,” using the language of compassion and caring.

Following the movement’s strong anti-Catholic sentiments, Minelli blamed “religion” for stigmatising suicide, attacking this “stupid ecclesiastical superstition” against suicide and euthanasia.

Schadenberg told LifeSiteNews.com that a leading theme of the Toronto conference was the movement’s hatred for Christianity and Catholicism in particular which it sees as the only credible opposition to their goals.

Read more at Lifesitenews.com

Daily Herald Accuses Culture Campaign of "Inaccurate and Unfair Crossfire"

In the recent editorial (“Be wary of charges of bias in the news”, Sept 15), the Daily Herald criticized Sandy Rios and “her Culture Campaign” for “outrageously inaccurate and unfair crossfire,” a reference to our voice in the District 214 books controversy. They said:

We’ve been vaguely aware of the cynicism wrought by partisan celebrities such as Rush Limbaugh on the right and Michael Moore on the left, but it didn’t hit home until a recent controversy in Northwest Suburban High School District 214 over a required reading list.

Conservative radio personality Sandy Rios and her Culture Campaign sought to turn the debate into a cause celebre and caught us repeatedly in its outrageously inaccurate and unfair crossfire.

Here’s how the group summarized one of our editorials on the subject: “Daily Herald Labels Board Member A ‘Reflexive Conservative’ While Defending ‘Highly Qualified Educators’ Forcing Pornography On Kids.”

Daily Herald editors went on to say regarding the books controversy:

“We can see why reasonable parents would be, at the least, uneasy with some of the selections. We’re uneasy with some.” Click here for the full text.

“Uneasy” is a mild reaction to passages so filthy they could not be printed in the newspaper: graphic depictions of sodomy, oral sex, sex with animals, and masturbation with a hot dog. In an apparent effort to remain ‘neutral’ between District 214 educators and concerned parents, editors failed to accurately convey the shocking depravity of these passages. Without access to the actual excerpts in question readers were left to conclude that Board Member Leslie Pinney and concerned parents were merely ‘reflexive’ conservatives attempting to interfere with ‘highly qualified’ educators just trying to do their job. We provided the excerpts at our website so parents could evaluate them firsthand.

We here at Culture Campaign admit to being 'biased'. We are 'biased' by our belief that the God of the Bible exists and He is not neutral about the corruption of children.

What is truly astonishing, however, is that the editors at the Daily Herald seem to believe that they themselves are objective and balanced. This is neither possible or even desirable. Decisions must be made (by people with opinions) about everything from which stories to report, which facts to mention, which sources should be quoted, to which words are used - (ie. inferring that Leslie Pinney is a 'reflexive' conservative as opposed to District 214 educators who are described as 'highly qualified'). The adjective 'reflexive' was neither necessary nor even true. However it did reflect the reporter's opinion of Ms. Pinney.

It is not possible to be neutral. It is not even desirable. To be neutral between right and wrong is immoral.

Let me provide a final illustration on a different topic: homosexuality. There seems to exist a virtual blackout of any and all reporting in the mainstream media including the Daily Herald which would call into question the wisdom of encouraging homosexual behavior. From the incredibly high disease and injury statistics among the gay male population, to the fact that children raised in gay households have a much higher incidence of becoming gay themselves - none of it gets reported in the Daily Herald or any other mainstream media outlet for that matter. The Daily Herald has apparently decided these are not newsworthy facts.

This does not stop Daily Herald editors from making the following statement:

But when journalists are working well and, may we say, contributing to the democracy, it is because they are exploring points of view. Right-wing and left-wing critics cannot do it because, by their nature, they are trying to prove a point of view.

Exploring points of view? The conservative point of view regarding homosexuality seems to be one point of view they have brazenly dismissed.

The first priority of the news media should not be neutrality, but truth. Neutrality is not even possible.

British Columbia Parents Will Have to Lie to Keep Kids out of Gay Advocacy Curriculum

VANCOUVER, September 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – BC’s Province newspaper, reports that parents in BC may not be allowed to opt their children out of school programmes promoting the homosexual lifestyle under the rubric of “respecting diversity”.

Surrey School Board Trustee, Heather Stillwell, predicted that the result of the legislation, denounced as coercive by activists, will be parents coming up with creative ways to keep their children out of the classes.

“Every year,” Stillwell told the Province, “there are lots of personal arrangements made between teachers and parents to let kids opt out of certain parts of classes that might not be helpful to those students," Stilwell said.

“This ... is going to take away that freedom. Parents are going to be forced to make a lot of daytime dental appointments to free their kids.”

“What it will force them to do is lie,” Stilwell told reporters. “There’ll be a loss of confidence in the community.”

As a result of a Human Rights Commission case brought by two homosexual men, a “married” gay couple called Murray and Peter Corren, the two men have been granted an extraordinary say in all school curricula from kindergarten to grade 12 in British Columbia schools. Their role is to ensure that all courses are inclusive and gay-friendly.

The Education Ministry has ordered schools to comply with the Alternative Delivery Policy that outlines the reasons parents may withdraw children from school lessons. The restriction of those reasons to exclude any homosexual advocacy was part of the deal worked out between the government and the two men.

Stillwell is warning government that the requirements will put parents into an untenable conflict over their duty to protect their children.

Murray Corren called for the new K-12 curriculum to include, “Queer history and historical figures, the presence of positive queer role models -- past and present -- the contributions made by queers to various epochs, societies and civilizations and legal issues relating to (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) people, same-sex marriage and adoption.”

The development imposes yet another extraordinary exception from normal rules because it has been insisted upon by gay activists. Homosexual activists have won special exceptions from laws regarding public nudity, sexual solicitation, public sex acts, group sex in their so-called "bath houses", normal medical safeguards to contain the transmission of dangerous communicable diseases, the posting of sexually explicit billboards and much more.

For full text of article see: lifesitenews.com

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Mark 9:42
"And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

What would you do if you were a parent or teacher in British Columbia?

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Mother Sues Hospital for Healthy Birth of 'Aborted' Daughter

Mon 11 Sep 2006

A young mother who lost a groundbreaking battle for £250,000 compensation after giving birth to an "aborted" twin daughter yesterday vowed to appeal against the decision.

Stacy Dow launched the action - the first of its kind in Britain - earlier this year, convinced she had not been given proper warning by NHS medics that termination operations do not always guarantee success.

The single mother decided to take the case to court, hoping to force the hospital to pay for the upbringing of her child.

Five years ago, at the age of 16, Miss Dow discovered she was pregnant. After much soul-searching and fearing she could not cope with premature motherhood, she went to Perth Royal Infirmary for an abortion.

But seven weeks from term, she was told that one of the foetuses had survived the abortion and in August 2001 she gave birth to a baby daughter, Jayde.

Christian Arrrested for Public Distribution of Bible Verses

News story from London dated September 5, 2006

A police force was caught up in a freedom of speech row after its officers arrested an anti-gay campaigner for handing out leaflets at a homosexual rally.

A spokesman for the police said the campaigner had not behaved in a violent or aggressive manner, but that officers arrested him because 'the leaflet contained Biblical quotes about homosexuality'.

South Wales police admitted evangelical Christian Stephen Green was then charged purely because his pamphlets contained anti-gay quotations from the Bible.

Mr Green faces a court appearance today charged with using 'threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour' after his attempt to distribute the leaflets at the weekend 'Mardi Gras' event in Cardiff.

The leaflets were headed Same-Sex Love - Same-Sex Sex: What does the Bible Say?, and included a series of quotations from the 1611 King James Bible, a text usually regarded as one of the foundation stones of the English language.

Aimed at demonstrating Biblical disapproval of homosexual sex, they included from the Old Testament Leviticus 18.22, 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination'.

The leaflets also quoted Romans 1:25-27 from the New Testament, to the effect that homosexuals are given to 'vile affections'.

The handbills urged homosexuals to 'turn from your sins and you will be saved'.

The charge against Mr Green is that he used 'threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby', contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.

Church of England evangelicals said it represented 'an onslaught on freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression' and Tory MPs called it 'disturbing'.

The decision to prosecute Mr Green is the latest in a series of police initiatives aimed against those who have expressed public disapproval of homosexual behaviour.

California's Other Disaster

Adam Ghadan, clothed in a white robe, sitting by a computer and some books, looked into the camera and warned fellow Americans to convert to Islam. “To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent your misguided ways and enter into truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next.”

Pretty tough talk for a boy from California…California…land of surfer dudes…Hollywood movies…plastic surgery and some of the poorest test scores in the nation. Land of beautiful weather AND people….Disneyland…mountains, deserts and everything gorgeous inbetween. Land of laws insistent on forcing little children be exposed to homosexuality and transgenderism in public school…land drowning in debt from guaranteed free services to illegal aliens…and mismanaged public utilities. Land of beautiful Pacific vistas, earthquakes and mudslides. Land of movie star governors, money and masters of play. It was in this atmosphere, Adam Ghadan was nurtured. Nursed on the milk of the shallow, educated in the halls of the twisted and graduated to the ranks of the confused turned evil. Adam Ghadan…California Boy.

“Who are the real terrorists?” He asked. “It’s hard to imagine that any compassionate person could see pictures and not want to go on a shooting spree at the Marine’s housing facilities at Camp Pendleton,” said the young American.

Boldly moving seamlessly from English to Arabic, Adam recounts the history of Islam…the battles…the teachings. The vacuous, rewritten-if- presented-at-all history of the California school system was evidently no match for the energetic, impassioned instruction of the Islamic Jihadists. The casual encouragement to yawn ones way through another language must have seemed profoundly unmotivating compared to the challenge of learning the ancient script and communicating with powerful warriors of the Middle East. And Adam learned these lessons very well.

But even though the mental challenge seemingly quenched by an otherwise bright boy through the rigors of a new language…and new religion might be on some level comprehensible, what about a boy leaving his family, his mother and father and his America…not only leaving them, but wishing them destruction and harm. How does a boy come to this?

It’s not so much of a mystery when you know that Adam was the son of an absent musician father, and an even more absent mother. The closest person in his life was his Jewish grandmother who lost track of his whereabouts years ago. What sort of teaching do you receive from a non-home like that? What sort of non-example? What sort of evidence of any God? What sort of reason to live? Especially if you have a good mind and the natural need to be loved.

There are thousands of Adam Ghadans in this country just waiting to be influenced by the next strong wind of seeming substance. The vacuum that is their heart and spirit is waiting to be filled by something…anything. And don’t be surprised if Islam, only too eager to recruit the young doesn’t carry them away.

“Bring up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” That Biblical promise is still true….even in California.

11 Abortion Clinics Closed in 3 Months

As the following excerpts from this article demonstrate, when regulations of the practice of abortion are enforced, abortionists become scarce.

Tuesday, September 5, 2006
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Another Florida abortionist has stopped performing abortions at one clinic rather than comply with rules and regulations, and pro-life activists say it's the 11th closure of a U.S. abortion business in just three months.

"[The abortionist's] arrogant attitude about complying with regulations is increasingly typical in the abortion industry," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "This story reaffirms that our country faces a crisis of abortion clinics that operate as if they are above the law at the cost of innocent lives."

. . . the abortion businesses that have had shutdowns in recent weeks include:

• A clinic in Omaha, Neb., where the land was purchased from underneath the business and the owners couldn't find another facility to rent.
• The clinic that formerly operated in the building that now houses the Operation Rescue headquarters in Wichita, Kan.
• A facility in Birmingham, Ala., that was closed because of a suspended license.
• One business in Montgomery, Ala., that was closed when authorities found the abortionist didn't have hospital privileges.
• A business in Hialeah, Fla., where an investigation continues into allegations a baby was born alive, then killed and placed on the roof of the building to avoid detection by police.
• Five clinics owned by Pendergraft when his license was suspended. Three of those reopened later.

And the most recent case involve the business in Daytona Beach, Fla. "I think what it is is a trend," said [Operation Rescue spokeswoman Cheryl] Sullenger. "A lot of times, when the health department people are investigating, they actually walk into an abortion clinic. It's one thing to think about a clinic, another to actually walk in and see the conditions."

Shocker: Schwarzenegger Signs Bill Denying Funds to Schools That Won’t Promote Homosexuality

SACRAMENTO, August 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – To the horror both of advocates of traditional values and defenders of freedom of religious expression, California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that would make it impossible for schools, whether public or private, secular or religious, to exclude homosexual “lifestyle” propaganda.

The bill will punish any entity or program that accepts any state assistance unless it accepts homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality.

This legislation has far reaching ramifications. Among other things, students will no longer be able to use government student loans to attend private religious universities.

Jan La Rue of the Washington office of Concerned Women for America, called on pastors to speak out. “Pastors, do we hear your voices speaking out to save the next generation from being led into an immoral and unhealthy lifestyle? Some of you need to stop pretending that moral issues are only political,” LaRue said.

Is anyone out there?????

Related article: Gov. Arnold Tosses School Moral Codes