Mumford & Sons

A few months ago, one of my sons gave me a CD by a group he liked, Mumford & Sons. I thought the album entitled Babel was a lot of fun. It reminded me of my old folk-rock favorites like the Byrds. Then I came across an article that said the album has proved to be controversial for its religious allusions. That intrigued me.

Apparently the leader of the group, Marcus Mumford, first circulated in the scene around the Vineyard, an international network of evangelical Christian churches (Mumford’s parents are leaders of the community in the U.K.). One review, which was supposed to be about the album itself, focused more on the Christian elements in the songs. The critic sniffs  that Mr. Mumford’s parents “are big on the God thing.” When the piece gets around to the album, Spin informs: “that Holy Spirit and Satan stuff winds all through the band’s music.” If you missed the writer’s condescension toward God and everything religion related (and few did), he adds: “Pope rock will never die!” Har, har.

The article went on to note the hypocrisy of these critics who are clearly uncomfortable with the religious aspects of the group. It points out that Rihanna can sing that “Sticks and stones may break my bones/But chains and whips excite me” in “S&M.” Madonna can make a play on the club drug ecstasy in titling her latest album MDNA. Snoop Dog can rap about killing undercover cops. Just don’t dare talk about Our Father. good point. Critics celebrate the breaking of social and moral conventions, but they are quick to posture against any signs of religious roots.

The article concludes with a good point. In a world without taboos the only taboo is God. Why do so many of today's rebels dislike the idea of God? Pretty simple: "A higher power reminds of limitations, authority, and that something greater than number one exists. The rock star imagines himself as a human deity, and his many worshippers treat him accordingly. God’s a real buzz kill in that anthropocentric universe."

You might want to see the whole article. It's titled "The Father, Mumford & Sons, and the Holy Spirit," and the author is Daniel Flynn.

North Korean dictators and the power of Christianity

For Christmas I wanted to share part of an article by Melanie Kirkpatrick  entitled "A Christmas Prayer for North Korea's Christians." It will encourage you to realize how Christianity has power to scare the brutal leaders of repressive countries, and it will make you appreciate all the freedoms we have in America.

 Here it is:

 

Spare a thought on Christmas Eve for Christians who live in countries where practicing their faith is an act of courage. Nowhere is that more true than in North Korea, where religion is banned. The only permissible worship is that of the trinity of Kim family dictators—the late Eternal President Kim Il Sung, his son Kim Jong Il (who died last year), and current leader Kim Jong Eun.

How dangerous is it for Christians in North Korea? In a report this year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom describes "the arrest, torture and possible execution" of Christians, Buddhists and others conducting clandestine religious activity in the North. It cites several widely reported cases of persecution of Christians, including the public execution in 2009 of Ri Hyon Ok for the crime of distributing Bibles. In keeping with the regime's policy of punishing wrongdoers' families, Ri's husband and three children reportedly were dispatched to a political prison.

The commission report also describes how 23 Christians were arrested in 2010 for belonging to an underground Protestant church. Three were executed and the rest were jailed. The commission estimates there are thousands of Christians among the 150,000 to 200,000 North Koreans incarcerated in the regime's infamous political prison camps. 

Yet despite this repression, something is happening that many characterize as nothing short of a miracle: Christianity appears to be growing in North Korea. Open Doors International, which tracks the persecution of Christians world-wide, puts the number of Christians in North Korea at between 200,000 and 400,000. 

North Korean Christians necessarily worship in secret. Many of the congregations are small family units consisting of just a husband and wife and, when they are old enough to keep a secret, their children. Other times a handful of Christians form a kind of congregation in motion. A worker for Open Doors explains how it works: "A Christian goes and sits on a bench in the park. Another Christian comes and sits next to him. Sometimes it is dangerous even to speak to one another, but they know they are both Christians, and at such a time, this is enough." 

. . . It is new believers who are responsible for the recent spread of Christianity in North Korea. Most have been introduced to Christianity by fellow North Koreans who are recent converts. The proselytizers usually escaped across the border to China, became Christians, and then returned home to seek converts. The proselytizers and the churches they establish in North Korea often are supported by South Korean or American missionaries in China.

. . . While the Kim family regime has long punished every North Korean whom China repatriates, it reserves the harshest penalties for those believed to have had contact with Christians in China. It also has sent agents into China to kidnap South Korean pastors working with North Korean refugees including, in 2000, a pastor from Chicago who was a permanent resident of the U.S. Kim Dong-shik is believed to have died in prison in North Korea. 

. . . The regime has stepped up the campaign against Christians in recent years. It trains police and soldiers about the dangers of religion and sends agents posing as refugees into China to infiltrate churches. Sometimes the agents even set up fake prayer meetings to catch worshipers, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. 

. . . Why does the regime fear Christianity? Eom Myong-hui, who escaped from North Korea a few years ago, became a pastor in South Korea and is now living in the U.S., says that it is because Christianity points the way to freedom: "In my view, Christianity is about the individual, about accepting responsibility." That is anathema to Pyongyang, which wants to control every aspect of its citizens' lives.

. . .  Being a Christian in North Korea isn't just dangerous. It is also lonely. An American who has made frequent visits to North Korea recalls a secret prayer meeting with a local Christian. Tell the world "that we are part of the body of believers," the North Korean pleaded. "Don't forget us."

The murder of innocents and the human race

I'll get back to talking about hiking trails in a future blog, but I wanted you to read part of an essay by Ben Stein. He was commenting on the horrific murder of the children in Newtown. Toward the end of the essay he moved the discussion beyond the particular incident and reflected on the human race itself. His comments reflect the Christian worldview perfectly.

Here is Stein: . . . The whole world is rightly overwrought and crazed with grief over the murder of twenty totally innocent and blameless souls last Friday in Newtown. It was and is a catastrophe for the ages.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promises to kill every Jew in Israel and then in the whole world, including babies… and he had his defenders, even at the Democratic National Convention. And it was daily life in Nazi-occupied Europe from 1939 to 1941 to kill thousands of Jewish children every day. But powerful, intelligent men and women in this country defended Hitler, spoke up for him and for keeping America from even sending arms to Britain when England stood alone. What are we to make of that? No one even mentions, no one even knows about the horrendous Armenian genocide by the Turks in 1915, when well over a million of the most talented people on the planet were wantonly murdered — and the world has still not officially called it genocide — and Hitler explicitly said it was a model for him. Who today even talks of the purposeful mass starvation of millions of beautiful Ukrainian children by Stalin? The U.S. did not say one word about it as a government. The U.S. still will not confront Turkey seriously about the Armenian children.

Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge killed roughly one third of all of its people, including children, from 1974 to about 1977 — and it was U.S. policy to avoid doing anything to stop them — because they were opposed to the North Vietnamese Communists and Communist Vietnam, which had just taken over South Vietnam — our ally. What can we say to that? We cheered the deposing of the President — Richard Nixon — who would have stopped the Khmer Rouge from taking power. There is plenty of Cambodian blood on our hands. There is plenty of blood of all kinds on our hands, especially of the most innocent and blameless among us… real babies, truly innocent.

God help us. Man is made of such crooked stuff that it is impossible to set him straight, said a famous philosopher. God help us. 

Winter hikes

Now that the weather has cooled off, I try to get out often for local hikes. There's nothing spectacular here like roaring waterfalls or meadows with black bears nosing around. But there are nice places to get away from the noise and demands of our hectic lives. Here are a few of my favorites (with more to follow in another blog). Contact me if you'd like more details.

1. Daley Ranch--There are no bad hikes here. This was going to be a huge housing development by Dixon Lake in northern Escondido, but it all fell through. The city bought the land and turned it into miles and miles of trails. If you can go during the week, you'll have most of the trails to your self. I've seen a bobcat, a family of coyotes, hawks, rattlesnakes, a rosy boa snake, lizards, and assorted critters. There is a main entrance off La Honda, but my favorite is the little-used trail that starts off Cougar Pass.

2. Blue Sky--This one's in Poway. If you go far enough, you end up climbing a steep route that takes you to Lake Ramona.

3. Del Dios Highlands--This one is reached off Del Dios Highway as you exit Escondido near Via Rancho. Wow, you really have to put it in low gear as you hike nearly straight up, but it's worth it. You bump up against the east end of the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve, site of Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir. Lots of cool trails when you get there and some pretty nice views of Escondido and other areas.

OK, that's it for now. More to come. Hope you can get out there and enjoy the scenery.

A sad new survey

I just read a sobering piece in The American Spectator. Might as well depress you too.

A survey that focused on government was released  last week by Gallup. A majority of people -- 53 percent -- who describe themselves as Democrats or leaning Democrat, admit to Gallup's pulse takers that they have a positive image of socialism. Only two percent more -- 55 -- say they are positive about capitalism. A robust 75 percent of Democrats say they have a positive image of the federal government. Hard to believe . . . Nah, I guess it isn't after seeing the results of this past election.

These numbers should not surprise anyone who has talked to a Democrat over the last couple of decades. A majority of the political party currently in the ascendancy in America holds a positive view of an economic system that has been tried countless times in countless places, has never delivered prosperity, but has always diminished personal and economic freedom.

Were the numbers any better when Republicans were asked the same questions in the survey?  Of those who identify themselves as Republican or leaning Republican, 72 percent say they have a positive image of capitalism. A surprising 23 percent of Republicans tell Gallup they have a positive view of socialism. Yikes!

I blame several things for these results. There's the educational system, the media, Hollywood, and the lack of concern among many religious folks.

In the same survey, Gallup probed attitudes toward other institutions. The numbers suggest that while a significant fraction of Americans have a positive view of socialism, they have no understanding of how it works. The majority pro-socialist Democrats, when asked about small business, free enterprise, and entrepreneurs, say they approve of these things by 94, 88, and 84 percent, just slightly smaller numbers than Republicans.

Hard to believe.  The same group, 53 percent of which hearts socialism, also says it approves of capitalism by 88 percent. This strongly suggests that an unknown but large percentage of this group has no idea how either economic system works. It also easily explains the high level of support for our current president (54 percent job approval in the latest Rasmussen, sigh . . .) who has demonstrated clearly and repeatedly that he not only doesn't know how wealth is created, but doesn't care, so long as his statist and class envy policies are adopted. He also says he respects capitalism and American business, which his tax and regulatory policies are undoing at an alarming rate. Fewer and fewer Americans see the blatant inconsistency between Obama's rhetoric and his actual practices.  What's wrong with our critical reasoning skills these days? Guess the answer is the same as a previous one--our educational system, the media, . . .

My English 245 class

This coming spring I'll be teaching English 245 (the Bible as literature) out at Palomar College. It's so much fun. Please contact me if you are interested in the class. If you can't take it in person, I can give you info on how to access audio lectures on the Bible that I put together for my last sabbatical.

California's financial mess continues

What’s it like to live in California these days? Remember the cliché of inmates running the asylum? It’s true here when it comes to our finances. According to a recent Wall Street Journal piece, merely paying the state's delinquent bills will require tens of billions in additional revenues if lawmakers don't undertake fiscal reforms.

Lawmakers have been borrowing and deferring debts for the past decade merely to close their annual deficits, and those bills will soon come due. The legislature has raided $4.3 billion from special funds and deferred $10 billion in constitutionally required payments to schools.

But, wait, there’s more (in the words of late-night salesmen). The state has also borrowed $10 billion from Uncle Sam to pay for jobless benefits and $313 million this year from the state disability insurance trust fund for debt service on those federal loans. Democrats have proposed replenishing the state's barren unemployment insurance trust fund by raising payroll taxes on employers. Expect that to happen now.

And the beat goes on . . . Then there's the more than $200 billion in unfunded liabilities the state has accrued for worker retirement benefits, which this year cost taxpayers $6.5 billion. The California State Teachers' Retirement System (I’m part of this) says it needs an additional $3.5 billion and $10 billion annually for the next 30 years to amortize its debt.

According to the article I read, the state has $73 billion in outstanding bonds for capital projects and $33 billion in voter-authorized bonds that the state hasn't sold in part because it can't afford higher debt payments. Unissued bonds include $9.5 billion for a bullet train, which will require $50 billion to $90 billion more to complete. Sacramento will also need more money to support an $11 billion bond to retrofit the state's water system, which is planned for the 2014 ballot.

Why is all of this important to residents of the state? With no GOP restraint, liberals can now raise taxes to pay for all this. They'll probably start by repealing Proposition 13's tax cap for commercial property. Democrats in the Assembly held hearings on the idea this spring. Then they'll try to make it easier for cities to raise taxes.

The greens want an oil severance tax. Other Democrats want to extend the sales tax to services, supposedly in return for a lower rate, but don't expect any "reform" to be revenue neutral. Look for huge union pay raises and higher pension benefits.

The Sacramento liberals believe they can tax and regulate the private economy endlessly without consequence. We shall see. I’m betting that there will come a day of reckoning. Let’s hope voters out here wake up (but I doubt it).