Would Jesus Insult Islam?

In the 1990s, WWJD became a popular phrase and motto for a number of Christians who rightly believed that, before performing an action, we should ask ourselves, "What Would Jesus Do"? We don't see the bracelets very often these days, and although the phrase isn't as wide spread as it once was, I'd like to think that most Christians would still ask themselves that question today rather than act without thinking of the sinfulness of the action.

Today, it appears that "Draw Muhammed Contests" are becoming all the rage in the U.S.. One such event was planned for Friday, outside a Phoenix, Arizona mosque by "former Marine" Jon Ritzheimer who was encouraging folks to "utilize there [sic] second amendment right at this event just incase [sic] our first amendment comes under the much anticipated attack." Ritzheimer was quoted as saying, "This is purely 100% a Freedom of Speech Rally. Stand Tall and show that we can PEACEFULLY protest our rights that are under attack. That is the sole cause for this Rally and Islam wants to silence us."

Personally, I fail to see how bringing firearms to an event that intentionally insults a religious group can be call "peaceful". I'm also wondering how we Christians should react to this. Does Jesus ask us to stand outside a mosque wearing a "F**K ISLAM" T-shirt ?

Over the years, non-Christian's have displayed anti-Christian works of "art", such as the infamous "piss Christ" without fear of violent retaliation from the followers of Jesus. We Christians have, instead followed Christ's command to "turn the other cheek" and to forgive, "not seven times but seventy-seven times".

Obviously, Muslims will have a far different reaction. Are we permitted to insult Muslims because they fight back?

I am not asking these question out of fear of Islam or Muslim extremists. I hope that, should the time come, I'd be able to face death for Christ. I'm simply saying that we should treat Muslims the way we would like to be treated.

Clinton/Obama Feud Continues Over Kenyan Bride Token.

It's certainly no secret that President Obama and his former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton are not the best of friends. It's been reported that Mrs. Clinton referred to Barack Obama as ‘incompetent and feckless' and was quoted as saying of Obama, "You can’t trust the motherf***er".

Now, it appears that the two families have more reason to dislike each other.

In what appears to be a slap in the face toward the Clintons, Felix Kiprono, a lawyer in Nairobi, Kenya, has offered a bride token to President Obama for the hand of his 16 year old daughter, Malia. The bride token is said to consist of 50 cows, 70 sheep and 30 goats. Kiprono's offer could be worth in excess of $90,000.

In 2000, then President Clinton was offered the bride token of 40 goats and 20 cows for daughter Chelsea's hand in marriage by another Kenyan, Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor. I can understand how the Clintons would view this insult as a proverbial poke in the eye.

Naturally, President Obama and the First Lady have every reason to be proud. Even counting for inflation, the value of the bride token offered for Malia far and away exceeds the piddling amount offered for Chelsea.

Last August, Chepkurgor -a photographer - was "accidentally" killed in an elephant attack on while on assignment for the Kass Weekly magazine.

Coincidence?

With the Legalization of "Same-Sex Marriage" in Ireland...........

.......the word "Gaelic" takes on a whole new meaning.

In Defense of Larry D.

Let me go ahead and get this part out of the way; I've been a fan of Larry D and his actsoftheapostasy blog for several years now; long before his recent arrival at patheos.com or even the wordpress version. I go back to the days when he was using blogspot.com to host his blog.

In all those years, I don't think I've come across any post he's written that has generated as many negative comments as his post entitled Getting Men Back To Church: It’s About Discipleship, Not Dickscipleship. Several of the comments were downright nasty.

Larry D had given us six signs of what he believed to be unproductive forms of evangelization, which he called Dickscipleship - as in being a dick. That's not the way I would have gone about it, but the six signs were pretty accurate and I believe most of the criticism directed toward him was over the top.

Larry D has always tried to inject humor into his stuff. Like all humor, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Although many of the negative comments referenced his "vulgarity", I suspect it may have been his remarks concerning the Extraordinary Form versus the Novus Ordo that actually struck a nerve with the folks who wandered over from Pewsitter.com.

One fellow named Stephen wrote in the comment box, that Larry D's blog post had been linked to Pewsitter. Stephen believes that the link brought "tens of thousands of people" to Larry's "diatribe". That number seems a bit high to me, but it does go a long way in explaining why so many of the comments were hostile.

It'll all blow over in a day or two. Pewsitter will upgrade it's page, removing the link and their storm troopers will have forgotten all about Larry D. Things will soon be back to normal.

Climate Change Quote.

From an article at al Jazeera concerning climate change:

"It’s unclear weather casting climate change as a national security issue will lead to a bipartisan effort to tackle the problem. For now, though, the military appears to be taking the issue seriously on its own".

That's the worst spell of whether we've had in ages.