Pat’s Blog

Have our leaders lost their minds?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
By: Newt Gingrich

Humanevents.com

I have two grandchildren, ages 5 and 7. If you’re a parent or grandparent yourself, I challenge you not to think about a child you love when you read what I’m about to tell you.

I challenge you not to share my disgust with the barbarians who use the blood of innocents to further their political agendas.

And I challenge you not to share my contempt for the bureaucrats who think they can appease them. For the governments that think their actions don’t have consequences.

For the politicians who think that something - anything - good can come from allowing the killers of children to walk free.

Smadar Haran, her husband Danny, and their two daughters, ages two and four, were at home in their apartment in northern Israel on the night of April 22, 1979. They were asleep in their beds around midnight when they awoke to gunfire and grenades exploding. Terrorists, sent by terrorist leader Abu Abbas to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty at Camp David the year before, were breaking into their building.

Desperate to hide, Smadar carried her two-year-old into a crawl space above their bedroom. So terrified was she that her baby girl would cry out and alert the terrorists to their hiding place that Smadar held her hand tightly over the girl’s mouth. Too tightly. By the time they were rescued hours later, the little girl was dead. Smadar had accidentally smothered her own child.

But the horror doesn’t end there.

While Smadar and her child hid in the crawlspace, Danny and the four-year-old ran out of the apartment for the safety of an underground shelter. They didn’t make it. The terrorists took Danny and the little girl down to the beach where one of them, Samir Kuntar, shot Danny in front of the girl. His goal, according to Smadar, was that the sight of her father being killed “would be the last sight she would ever see.”

Then Kuntar smashed the little girl’s skull against a rock until she was dead.

Last week, in a deal brokered by the Israeli government with the terrorist group Hezbollah, Samir Kuntar, a cowardly child killer, walked out of an Israeli prison.

The deal the Israeli government made with Hezbollah included the exchange of the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in return for five live terrorists in Israeli prisons, including Kuntar.

And Kuntar was no ordinary terrorist prisoner. Abu Abbas was so impressed with Kuntar’s savage child-killing tactics that Abbas masterminded the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985 - including the killing and dumping into the ocean of the defenseless, elderly, wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer - to secure Kuntar’s release.

Israel didn’t cave into terrorists in 1985, but it did last week. And the deal it struck with Hezbollah will have disastrous consequences for Israel and the world.

The concession, writes the Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick “will cement Iran’s control of Lebanon through Hizbullah. It also all but guarantees that any future Israeli soldiers taken hostage by Hizbullah will be killed on the spot. Why care for hostages when you can murder them and expect to receive the same payoff you would get if you kept them alive?”

But possibly even more disappointing than the Israeli government’s willingness to make deals with terrorists is the reception that greeted the release of Samir Kuntar in parts of the Middle East last week. Columnist Mona Charen reports that Kuntar literally received a red carpet reception in Beirut. Charen writes: The government closed all offices and declared a national day of celebration. Tens of thousands of Lebanese cheered, waved flags, threw confetti, and set off fireworks as Hezbollah staged a rally to celebrate their “victory” over Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas, the “moderate” leader of the Palestinian Authority, sent “blessings to Samir Kuntar’s family.” PA spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman sent “warm blessings to Hezbollah on the return of the heroes of freedom . . . headed by the great Samir Kuntar.”

This barbaric display enrages me and it should enrage all Americans.

Both the Palestinian Authority and the Lebanese government are recipients of U.S. taxpayers’ money through foreign assistance. Political leaders - and the people they lead - who cheer the release of despicable child murderers are unworthy recipients of our assistance.

Congress should insist that the Lebanese government and the Palestinian Authority retract their support for Kuntar or it should cut off U.S. assistance to them.

As if the news from Israel weren’t bad enough, the seemingly irresistible urge among some foreign policy elites to appease our worst enemies came home to America last week.

The State Department sent its third most senior official to sit in on nuclear “negotiations” with Iran, even as Iran continues its relentless pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

In the past, President Bush had a label for such a move. He called it “appeasement.” Last week, his own State Department succeeded in taking the first steps in a futile attempt to appease a dictator who has called for the destruction of Israel and defeat of the West. His stated goal? A world without America.

And so I ask again: Have our leaders lost their minds?

As a historian, I look for clues for how to manage our present from how we’ve managed our past.

One thing history shows is that some elites have a dangerous and unexplainable desire to lie to themselves.

A case in point: In 1924, Adolph Hitler was released from a German prison after serving time for conspiracy to overthrow the German government. Nine years before he took power and led Germany on an irrevocable course toward world war and a campaign of systematic genocide against Jews, Gypsies, Catholics and others, the headline in the New York Times was:
“Hitler Tamed By Prison”

Read closely. The article concludes on this deluded note: “[Hitler's] behavior during imprisonment convinced the authorities that [he], like his political organization, known as the Volkischer, was no longer to be feared. It is believed he will return to private life and return to Austria, the country of his birth.”

As America looks ahead to the swearing in of a new president next January, we need now, more than ever, leaders who resist the temptation to delude themselves about the nature of our enemies.

As a young Senator with little foreign policy experience, Barack Obama faces a unique challenge. As I write this, Senator Obama is traveling abroad seeking to convince the American people that he has the leadership ability to be commander in chief.

Senator Obama has also repeatedly assured us that he, too, will negotiate with regimes like Iran. But the question we owe to ourselves is to ask Senator Obama and our current State Department:

When negotiations don’t work, what are you prepared to do?

Talking isn’t a policy, it’s a process. And talking to people who have vowed your destruction is at best a futile and at worst a dangerous process.

Just ask the Israelis. After greeting Samir Kuntar with a hug and a kiss when he returned to Lebanon last week, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah declared, “The time of defeat is long gone. Today is the time of victory.”

Tony Snow, former Press Secretary for President Bush, and host on Fox News Channel, recently succumbed to Colon Cancer. His mild manner and engaging smile endeared him to many in the “business” and around the world. He was loved, and will be missed. He was known as a devout Christian and Family man.

In the midst of his bout with his terminal cancer, he penned the following. I knew it would bless you, as it did me.

There is NO fear in death!!!

‘Blessings arrive in unexpected packages,
- in my case, cancer. 
Those of us with potentially fatal diseases
- and there are millions in America today -
find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality
while trying to fathom God’s will. 
Although it would be the height of presumption
to declare with confidence ‘What It All Means,’
Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.   
The first is that we shouldn’t spend too much time
trying to answer the ‘why’ questions:
Why me?
Why must people suffer?
 Why can’t someone else get sick?
 We can’t answer such things,
 and the questions themselves
often are designed more to express our anguish
       than to solicit an answer.     
I don’t know why I have cancer, and I don’t much care. 
It is what it is, a plain and indisputable fact. 
Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly,
great and stunning truths began to take shape. 
Our maladies define a central feature of our existence:
We are fallen.
We are imperfect.
       Our bodies give out.       
But, despite this, - or because of it, -
God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. 
We don’t know how the narrative of our lives will end,
but we get to choose how to use the interval
between now
        and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.       
Second, we need to get past the anxiety. 
The mere thought of dying
can send adrenaline flooding through your system. 
A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. 
Your heart thumps; your head swims.
 You think of nothingness and swoon. 
You fear partings;
you worry about the impact on family and friends.
     You fidget and get nowhere.     
To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death,
but into life - and that the journey continues
after we have finished our days on this earth. 
We accept this on faith,
but that faith is nourished by a conviction
that stirs even within many non-believing hearts
- an institution that the gift of life, once given,
cannot be taken away. 
Those who have been stricken
enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight
with their might, main, and faith
to live fully, richly, exuberantly
- no matter how their days may be numbered. 
Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. 
God relishes surprise. 
We want lives of simple, predictable ease,
 - smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see, -
but God likes to go off-road. 
He provokes us with twists and turns.   
He places us in predicaments
that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension
- and yet don’t.  
By His love and grace, we persevere. 
The challenges that make our hearts leap
and stomachs churn
invariably strengthen our faith
and grant measures of wisdom and joy
we would not experience otherwise. 
‘You Have Been Called’. 
Picture yourself in a hospital bed. 
The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. 
A doctor stands at your feet,
a loved one holds your hand at the side. 
 ’It’s cancer,’ the healer announces.  
The natural reaction is to turn to God
and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa.
‘Dear God, make it all go away.
Make everything simpler.’ 
But another voice whispers: ‘You have been called.’  
Your quandary has drawn you closer to God,
closer to those you love,
closer to the issues that matter,
- and has dragged into insignificance
the banal concerns
        that occupy our ‘normal time.’     
There’s another kind of response,
although usually short-lived,
an inexplicable shudder of excitement
as if a clarifying moment of calamity
   has swept away everything trivial and tiny,
   and placed before us
              the challenge of important questions.        
The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
things change. 
You discover that Christianity
is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. 
Faith may be the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen. 
But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. 
The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks,
     reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. 
Think of Paul, traipsing through the known world
and comtemplating trips
to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain),
 shaking the dust from his sandals,
worrying not about the morrow,
    but only about the moment.    
There’s nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue,
- for it is through selflessness and service
that God wrings from our bodies and spirits
the most we ever could give,
the most we ever could offer,
      and the most we ever could do.     
Finally, we can let love change everything.
When Jesus was faced with the prospect of cruicifixion,
he grieved not for himself,
but for us. 
He cried for Jerusalem before entering the Holy City. 
From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness,
and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.    
We get repeated chances
to learn that life is not about us,
that we acquired purpose and satisfaction
  by sharing in God’s love for others.  
   Sickness gets us part way there.   
It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. 
But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. 
A minister friend of mine observes
that people suffering grave afflictions
often acquire the faith of two people,
while loved ones accept the burden
          of two peoples’ worries and fears.          
‘Learning How to Live’. 
Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God’s arms,
not with resignation, but with peace and hope. 
In so doing, they have taught us not how to die,
but how to live. 
They have emulated Christ
     by transmitting the power and authority of life.     
I sat by my best friend’s bedside a few years ago
 as a wasting cancer took him away. 
He kept at his table a worn Bible
and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. 
A shattering grief disabled his family,
many of his old friends, and at least one priest. 
Here was an humble and very good guy,
someone who apologized when he winced with pain
  because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. 
He restrained his equanimity and good humor
literally until his last conscious moment. 
‘I’m going to try to beat [this cancer],’
 he told me several months before he died.
‘But if I don’t, I’ll see you on the other side.’
His gift was to remind everyone around him
that even though God doesn’t promise us tomorrow,
he does promise us eternity
- filled with life and love we cannot comprehend, -
and that one can, in the throes of sickness,
point the rest of us toward timeless truths
    that will help us weather future storms.    
Through such trials, God bids us to choose: 
Do we believe, or do we not?  
Will we be bold enough to love,
daring enough to serve,
humble enough to submit,
and strong enough
to acknowledge our limitations? 
Can we surrender our concern
in things that don’t matter
so that we might devote our remaining days
   to things that do?    
  
When our faith flags, He throws reminders in our way. 
Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. 
 They change things,
and those of us
who have been on the receiving end
of their petitions and intercessions
know it. 
It is hard to describe,
but there are times
when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up,
and you feel a surge of the Spirit. 
Somehow you just know:
Others have chosen,
when talking to the Author of all creation,
to lift us up,
- to speak of us!    
This is love of a very special order. 
But so is the ability to sit back
and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. 
The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid,
every happiness more luminious and intense. 
We may not know how our contest with sickness will end,
but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.    
What is man that Thou are mindful of him?   
We don’t know much, but we know this: 
No matter where we are,
no matter what we do,
no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects,
each and every one of us who believe each and every day,
 lies in the same safe and impregnable place,
in the hollow of God’s hand.’
T. Snow 

The following was sent to Claudia and me from a brand new listener. It is put together so beautifully, I knew I had to put it here so that you can read it, as well.

Remember, God is talking to His Precious Chosen Ones, the Jews. He is NOT addressing Christians. We were no where around when most of this was written. It is through the Chosen Ones, and the Cross and Resurrection that we have been invited to join in with the blessings of the Chosen Ones… and be recipients of these Words along with the Jews, NOT in place of the Jews.

There is a REASON why The Star Spangled Banner is the National Anthem of the United States, and NOT “America the Beautiful”, “The Black National Anthem” or “This Land Is Your Land”!!! There are some of us in the United States who have not forgotten our purpose for being here… the Land of the FREE, and the Home of the Brave.

Steven Millhorn, a very good friend of mine, sent this to me. Now, I proudly share the story with you.

Story of The Star Spangled Banner

Beyond the measure of culpability in deliberate omissions, reworks and additions resulting from anti-Jewish theological bias (for example, in Romans 10:4 the Messiah is “the goal at which the Torah aims,” not “the end of the law”) there is a lack of understanding of the ways in which the Hebrew mind views the world that, unless you come from this Jewish culture, escapes most of us.

For instance, John 20:3-9 describes Peter entering the tomb where Y’shua had been laid after His ordeal on the cross. In this passage is noted the “napkin, which was around His head, not lying with the linen clothes.” That verse, translated strictly from the Greek, is correct. What is lost in transliteration, however, is that the “napkin” described there is really a Jewish “tallit” which was why it was laying neatly folded, separate from the other clothes. Not having a Hebrew background would make it difficult understanding what was actually meant behind these Hebrew words.

When every Jewish boy turns 13 years of age, he becomes a bar mitzvah (literally - son of the commandment) and is obligated to begin to observe the commandments of Moses. At that time, he is given a tallit that he takes with him everywhere he goes for the rest of his life for use in his morning prayer. It is what is draped “around” or, more precisely, over the head during prayer and, traditionally, that same tallit is placed over the head of one who has died as they lie in their grave or tomb. That garment has fringes or strings on the corners called “lights” and, when not being used, is to be folded in a certain manner so that the lights all hang together from the same corner.

What is notable about this same event as described in Luke 24:12, has Peter “wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.” Peter was not yet fully aware of all that was happening, but since he saw the tallit was properly folded and away from the rest of the clothes, he knew for certain the Romans had not taken His Master because no Roman soldier would have known what a tallit was, let alone how to properly fold one, as Y’shua would have. When He arose from the dead, while still in the tomb, Y’shua removed the tallit from off his head, neatly folded it and laid it separately from the rest of His clothing - as He had done every day of His life from the time He was a boy, probably without thinking much about it because it had become second nature to him, a matter of habit.

What is significant about this one word, “napkin”, is how it illustrates the lack of understanding a Greek mindset possesses when looking at scripture - and when looking at who He is in Truth. Y’shua was and remains Jewish. He never distanced Himself from His People - not even in death. Think on this - there is not, nor has there ever been, another race of people on the planet upon whom God has declared, “These are My People.” Romans 11 tells us that it is WE, the Gentiles, who have been grafted INTO the Jewish root - not the other way around. It is BECAUSE of the Jewish THROUGH whom the Promise came, enabling us all to come into the Presence of the Father today.

By: haRold Smith in Jerusalem, Israel: http://hethathasanear.com

I cannot say enough good about Amy Grant. Her heart is golden. She has been so precious to Mom and Dad, and her note to me was so sweet.

As I watched the following, tears swelled in my eyes, as this song has touched the depths of my heart for so long. And, to have such a sweet person as Amy help me experience what the song is trying to portray, touched me deeply, as I know it touches Amy, as well. I hope it does the same for you.

Sandy, my Bud and Webmaster in Fort Worth, Texas, sent this to me this morning. It is ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!! We checked it out on “Truth of Fiction“. Please feel free to do the same.

In this election year, it makes one shake off all the dirt, and realize what is REALLY going on, and pride in our country rises to the surface. Thank God for these boys and girls who put their lives on the line to protect us.

For those who are unaware, at a military theater, the National Anthem is played before every movie.

From a Chaplain in Iraq:

I recently attended a showing of “Superman 3,” here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through The National Anthem the music stopped.

Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments; and everyone would d sit down and call for a movie. Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place. Here, the 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward. The music started again. The Soldiers continued to quietly stand at attention. And again, at the same point, the music stopped. What would you expect to happen?

Even here I would imagine laughter, as everyone finally sat down and expected the movie to start. But here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier continued to stand at attention. Suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices of a thousand soldiers, finishing where the recording left off: “…And the rockets red glare, The bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night That our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free, And the home of the brave.”

It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq. I wanted you to know what kind of Soldiers are serving you here. Remember them as they fight for you! Pass this along as a reminder to others to be ever in prayer for all our soldiers serving us here at home and abroad. For many have already paid the ultimate price.

Written by Chaplain Jim Higgins
LSA Anaconda is at the Ballad Airport in Iraq, north of Baghdad

Jordan Cave Claimed To Be World’s Oldest Church

Oldest Church?

June 11, 2008 — Archaeologists in Jordan have discovered a cave underneath one of the world’s oldest churches and say it may have been an even more ancient site of Christian worship.

An outside expert expressed caution about the claim.

Archaeologist Abdel-Qader Hussein, head of the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, said this week that the cave was unearthed in the northern Jordanian city of Rihab after three months of excavation and shows evidence of early Christian rituals.

The cave is under St. Georgeous Church, built in A.D. 230, making it one of the oldest churches in the world, along with one unearthed in the Jordanian southern port of Aqaba in 1998 and another in Israel discovered in 2005.

Hussein said there was evidence that the underground cave was used as a church by 70 disciples of Jesus in the first century after Christ’s death, which would make it the oldest Christian site of worship in the world.

He described a circular worship area with stone seats separated from a living area that had a long tunnel leading to a source of water. He said the early Christians hid there from persecution.

A mosaic inscription on the floor of the later church of St. Georgeous above refers to “the 70 beloved by God and the divine” who founded the worship there.

Thomas Parker, a historian at the North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who led the team that discovered the church in Aqaba, said that while he hadn’t seen the Rihab site, any such claim should be taken with a degree of caution.

“An extraordinary claim like this requires extraordinary evidence,” he said. “We need to see the artifacts and dating evidence to suggest such an occupation in the 1st century A.D.”

Parker asked how archeologists could be certain whether the “cave was actually a center of Christian worship.”

The archaeologist also noted that mosaics are difficult to date unless there is a precise date in the text of the mosaic inscriptions themselves and typical mosaic inscriptions with Christian themes are from the 5th to 6th century.

“It’s quite possible that there was a cave with earlier occupation which was later converted to Christian use. But to make the jump that this was actually used by Christians fleeing Jerusalem in the 1st century A.D. seems like a stretch to me,” Parker said.

Archimandrite Nektarious, Bishop Deputy of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Amman hailed the discovery, calling it an “important milestone for Christians all around the world and right here at home.”

“It confirms that Christians in this region are not strangers,” he said. “They are real citizens who have always had roots in this region from those days until the present.”

Claudia and I really liked the following “Musings” on Music, written by one of our listeners, Brook, who happens to be a Yentl - a woman who loves the study of the Torah. She is a Messianic Jew, who loves her people, and loves the history and teachings.

This is REALLY quite good, as are all of her Musings, and well worth your time to read, giving you great insight into the Jewish mindset and the reasons behind some of the Biblical passages.

My love of music has led me into an informal study of music and singing in Jewish tradition. As you know, all prayers and blessings in Judaism are sung in Hebrew…they are never spoken…and the tunes are thousands of years old. Even readings from the Torah are sung…again to tunes that are ancient.

The Jews have a real love for music and find expression the best with the harp. There are 2 kinds of harps, a kinnor which has 8 strings and is commonly referred to as King David’s harp and a nevel which is a lap harp that has 22 strings and half levers to really change the tones.

The Jewish Sages tell us that when Messiah comes, he will add 2 more strings to the kinnor and change the octave to a dectave (think that is what it would be called). Right now, 10 string kinnors are being built in Jerusalem by the House of Harrari (American Jews who made aliyah to Israel…they are master harp builders and have restored the ancient kinnor and nevel) as the religious Jews believe Messiah is coming very soon.

The 22 strings on the nevel correspond to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet and each string is named after a letter.

Jewish tradition tells us that when G-d created everything, He did so while playing a 22 string nevel and that He sang everything into existence.

It is interesting that in the book of Revelation, John writes that G-d has given all the inhabitants of heaven a harp.

The Jewish prophets and prophetesses also sang their prophecies…they did not speak them or just write them down. Jewish tradition states that the prophet would sit quietly and strum upon a kinnor or a nevel and wait upon G-d. The prophet would then feel the presence of a hand upon his/her shoulder…would open his/her mouth…and sing the words that G-d had placed in his/her mouth.

In the days of the Second Temple, there were many visitors from other lands who came to Jerusalem to see the wonder of the Temple and to conduct trade. Some writings from these mostly Greek and Roman visitors remain which shed some light on to the everyday life of the Second Temple era Jew. They record that virtually every Jew had a small kinnor that was tied to a belt about their waist…that they sang all the time…work songs…prayers…blessings…etc. One traveler stated that when one got within a certain distance of Jerusalem (think it was several miles if I remember correctly) that you could hear the harp music coming from the city and surrounding areas.

In the Second Temple, there was a great nevel…it was placed upon a stand in one of the courtyards and the breezes would move along the strings and the nevel would play beautiful tunes. The Jews thought it was G-d playing the nevel.

When the Jews were led into Babylonian captivity at the end of the First Temple period, they hung their harps in the branches of the trees as they would no longer sing the songs of their land. Think this is referenced in either Jeremiah or Lamentations?

Personally, I think Messiah sung the Sermon on the Mount. The way that “sermon” goes is very much structured like a song. Ever see the movie The Robe? There is a scene in it where Marcellus, the Roman Centurion who crucified Jesus, is having a discussion with a woman in Cana who is crippled. But she plays a kinnor and sings for the people in the town. I thought it interesting that she sang the words of Jesus while strumming the kinnor.

Bill Gaither introduces Buddy Green at the harmonica…