We are remembering today the attacks that took the lives of 2,977 people. 16 years have passed but I still clearly remember where I was when I watched the two towers come down.

I was having breakfast when my wife called to me to come upstairs and see something she was watching on a TV morning show. She said:

“Come here, you have to see this!”

I remember thinking that it was a really horrible accident until I saw a second plane hit the other tower and then I knew we were watching a world changing event. But I was not prepared for the horror of the two towers actually coming down one after another killing thousands.

Sixteen years have come and gone and there was a time when I thought that we would eventually be safe from terrorism in this country. But now it seems to be rising up in our own midst with home grown Islamists with no end in sight. Now Islamic terrorist events are happening almost every week somewhere in the world and it is no longer a big surprise but has unfortunately become part of our modern way of life. Meanwhile traveling by Air will never be the same and it is really hard to remember how ignorant about Islam we all were before 9/11/01.

On the positive side- the 9/11 museum is now open and the Freedom Tower has replaced the big hole in the ground. May God continue to bless America and may Americans remember when but also remember to thank God for all of the blessing we do have and continue to experience.             *Top

Shhh…

Muslim leaders in America are mostly silent when it comes to LGBT issues. When same-sex marriage was being debated in this country Imams, mosques, and Islamic organizations did not join with the opposition even though Islam is vehemently opposed to homosexuality. We have contended all along that the reason for this was to maintain the support coming from the left.

Now Australia is in the middle of debating same-sex marriage and again Muslims have been silent but at least one leader has now come out and has admitted the real reason for their secrecy. From ABC News AU:

Observers of the same-sex marriage debate will have noticed the voice of one particular community has been largely missing from the fray: Muslims.  …

But now one Muslim leader has offered an explanation.

Last night on ABC’s The Drum, Ali Kadri, spokesman for the Islamic Council of Queensland and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said his community was stuck with the choice of offending allies or siding with critics, and the result had been silence.

"Unfortunately, in the current climate, the right and conservative side has attacked Muslims as terrorists and extremists, and naturally the left side has been allies in defending us for a long period of time," he said.

"We are afraid if we come out with our opinion then the left may abandon us for going against their view and we can’t be friendly with the conservatives because they have been bashing us for 15, 20 years every chance they get … and that includes some Christian sects as well."

<Read the whole article>

Response: American Muslims have mostly been silent about LGBT issues and in several cases have even implied support that was not based on any kind of real action or official teaching. In Islam it is a storied tradition that lying is justifiable if it ultimately promotes the cause and spread of their religion.

Fact is, Muslim teaching is even more radical in its opposition and treatment of homosexuality than any other religion including Christianity. Nearly all of the Muslim countries in the Middle East still have laws against practicing homosexuality and some proscribe jail time and even death for those who are caught. 

Yet on a couple of occasions I have read American Muslim leaders claims that they do not oppose LGBT rights. Now we have at least one Muslim leader in Australia admitting that Muslims have been quiet on the issue of same–sex marriage in order to maintain their support from the left.

It’s really a strange combine of allies when the bedfellows include activists on the left and adherents of Islam. The left in America and Western countries have come to  identify their greatest opposition in the cultural wars as being conservative Christians. Yet the teachings of Islam on most cultural issues would naturally put Muslims to the right of conservative Christians but the left continues to champion Islam as an anti-Christian ally.

Meanwhile, conservative Christians, who are at the forefront of calling attention to the dangers of Muslim teaching, terrorism, and the incompatibility of the sharia law component of Islam with the Western culture and constitutional democracy, are identified by the left as haters and purveyors of Islamophobia.

Then folks on the left in their push for ‘diversity’ see Islam and Muslims as a positive force to balance out and decrease the power of conservative Christians. So they call Islam the ‘Religion of Peace’ to mediate the stain of Islamic terrorism, and continue to support an increase in Muslim immigration, along with combatting ‘slanderous’ free speech that is critical of Islam and its teachings. No wonder Muslim leaders would rather be quiet about some of their traditional teachings which are the exact opposite of PC progressive th9ught.

What is really amazing to me is how leftists go out of their way to excuse the unequal treatment of women in Islam. Even more astounding, in these times when Confederate statues are being destroyed, is the near total silence from the media and the left on the fact that slavery is still tolerated in Islam and legal in some Muslim countries. No wonder Muslim leaders are silent when they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by their subterfuge.               *Top

A judicial nominee was interrogated and attacked by Democrat Senators over her Catholic and Christian beliefs. The theme seemed to be – ‘Are you or have you ever been a Catholic’ who actually believes in the teaching of that faith? Here’s the story from from Todd Starnes on Townhall:

Senate Democrats came dangerously close to crossing a constitutional line regarding religious faith during an inquisition of one of President Trump’s nominees for the federal court.

Senators grilled federal judicial nominee Amy Barrett — demanding to know how her faith would influence her decisions from the bench. Barrett is a professor at Notre Dame Law School and a devout Catholic.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), expressed grave concerns that Barrett is a Catholic in good standing.

"When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for, for years in this country," Feinstein said.  ..

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) interrogated Barrett over her use of the term "orthodox Catholics"  …

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) accused Barrett of being unfit for the bench because of her ties to Alliance Defending Freedom – an organization he called a "hate" group.

<Read the whole article>

Response: Here we go again. We have said in the past that this would happen in the future but it seems that the future has come far quicker than we expected. Now it is actually happening, folks are being labeled as ‘unqualified for office’ because of their religious beliefs regardless of what the Constitution says about no religious test?

This is the second time that one of President Trump’s nominees have been attacked over their religious beliefs. In June, Sen. Bernie Sanders contended that Russell Vought was unsuitable for government service because of his exclusive Christian beliefs that salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. If this became an actual determining standard than all conservative Christians would be deemed ‘unqualified’ for government office and service.

In this case, some of the Senate interrogators are Catholics themselves but I guess that is OK as long as you ignore those teachings of your faith that do not square with the current PC progressive dogma.

The fact is, we are living in a very dangerous time in our country when the very Constitution that defines our government and rule of law and protects our rights is no longer respected by a large segment of the political ruling class in our country.  This is quite evident in the proceeding above and the earlier one by Sanders where a ‘religious test’ was attempted to be applied despite the Constitution.

In fact many on the left are boldly talking about ignoring the Constitution, limiting it, or completely destroying it through ‘modern reinterpretation’ or a rewriting convention. Judicial reinterpretation has been the vehicle of choice for at least a generation, but now there are voices clamoring for more radical action against some provisions of the Constitution including rewriting the document, disregarding it, or completely discarding it which would be tantamount to the establishment of some kind of progressive oligarchy or outright dictatorship.

Currently progressive political figures, liberal educators, the mainstream media, and leftist activists seem to be pushing for an exclusive progressive PC oligarchy that would block conservatives from not only government service but from exercising free speech and the freedom of religion in the public square.                *Top

While the Creator is not specifically referenced in the US Constitution, his name was invoked numerous times during its composition and a good case can be made that the Bible was used a a major source throughout.  But when it comes to state constitutions, God or the divine in referred to in all 50 documents. Here’s the story from Pew Research:

…God or the divine is mentioned at least once in each of the 50 state constitutions and nearly 200 times overall, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.  …

In addition to the 116 mentions of God, there are also 14 mentions of a Supreme or Sovereign Being, seven mentions of the “Creator,” three mentions of “providence,” four mentions of “divine” and 46 instances of the word “almighty.” While there are 32 mentions of the word “Lord,” all but one refer to “the year of our Lord” and so are not direct references to God. (Indeed, the U.S. Constitution also makes reference to “the year of our Lord.”) There also are seven mentions of the word “Christian.”

<Read the whole article>

Response: It is now ‘common knowledge’ that there is suppose to be a ‘separation between church and state.’ But that separation was not as clearly defined in the past and when you read the original historical documents you find that the real concerns were not about keeping religion out of government but were more about eliminating sectarianism and for providing an environment of religious freedom. In fact at the founding of our nation a number of the states actually supported state churches.

Now there is a push to take God out of the public square entirely. Atheist groups like the FFRF are on the attack daily looking for what they consider to be ‘church and state’ violations. The fact is every state constitution probably violates their perception of the way it should be. In reality, these documents actually stand as a testimony against the current understanding of ‘freedom from religion’ and the eradication of God and religion from the public square as being the proper interpretation of the First Amendment.               *Top

Gog and Magog vs. Israel?

Turkey and Russia recently reached an agreement for the sale and installation of a Russian S-400 missile defense system. From a news update on August 25 in Debka File:

Turkey and Russia have reached agreement on the sale of Russian S-400 missile defense systems to Ankara, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Friday. … Defending Turkey as a NATO country buying arms from Russia, Yildirim said his country was working with Russia and Iran in Syria…

Also from an earlier article in Business Insider:

Turkey reached an agreement with Russia to purchase the latter’s most sophisticated missile-defense system, the S-400, a senior Turkish military official told Bloomberg last week.

Under the $2.5 billion agreement Ankara would receive two batteries of the antiaircraft missile from Moscow within the coming year and then produce two more batteries in Turkey.

At the beginning of June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to deliver the missile system, and a Russian military-industry official said an agreement on technical details had been reached in mid-June.

<Read the whole article>

Response: I believe that this missile agreement has major implications for the alignment of the nations potentially participating in an Ezekiel 38-39 scenario: Gog and Magog vs. Israel. This development is important because Turkey and Russia are the modern equivalents of a number of the major nations allied against Israel in the prophecy. Now Turkey and Russia are increasingly becoming closer and with this agreement Turkey’s position in NATO and as a close ally of the United States is in question and on the decline.

Note that in the Debka news update that Turkey PM Yildirim said his country was ‘working with Russia and Iran in Syria’ –all 4 are major pieces in the scenario puzzle that have refused to come together until now. In the past Russia and turkey have fought against each other in at least 12 wars and were on opposite sides during the ‘Cold War’ with Turkey as a member of NATO. Also, Turkey and Iran have always been rivals in the past, both represent different major factions in Islam- Sunni (Turkey) and Shia (Iran), with each hoping to become the dominant power and headquarters for a new Islamic Caliphate.

Now Putin of Russia seems to be in the process of bringing these usual rivals all together in the war against ISIS in Syria. So the nations that are listed in the Ezekiel 38-39 attack against Israel are beginning to come together for the first time in history.  —>

<Read the rest of the article on my Apologetica page>               *Top

Also see my past articles on the Ezekiel Scenario:

-Updating The Ezekiel 38-39 Scenario

 -Is ‘Gog and Magog’ Beginning to Line Up?

Soon in California you might find yourself in jail if you work in a care facility and use the wrong pronoun. Here’s the story from the Daily Wire:

California legislators are set to vote this week on a bill that could criminalize using the wrong pronoun to refer to a transgender individual.  …

Titled the "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Long-Term Care Facility Residents Bill of Rights," …

Use "he" instead of "she" and you could face a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail for gender-based discrimination and harassment. The law, which says "knowingly," does not seem to identify a specific standard, leaving interpretation of motive up to authorities.

<Read the whole article>

Response: There is no doubt that Gov. Brown will sign this bill into law once it is passed.

There are real questions about how this law will affect faith-based care facilities. Also the vagueness of identifying intent could make this law unenforceable. Worse, this could become an actual tool of harassment against religious folks and institutions that refuse to bow to the god of transgender ‘state’ theology.  

Another California law that will generate innumerable law suits in the future.  One is tempted to call it ‘welfare’ for lawyers.            *Top