Here's some of the better pictures I took on the mission trip. I didn't take as many as I should have, but oh well. Someone else got me marching with the signs, hopefully I'll be able to add those soon.

Utah Pictures

First of all I'd like to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and also thank those who were able to support me financially. By God's grace it all worked out quite perfectly. The trip was simply awesome. It was by far the most impactful trip I've ever been on (compared to Thailand, Hume, Mexico, etc.), not just in my life, but noticeably in everyone else's. First I'll quickly run through what we did then what God in my life. We had a team of 19, 11 students and 8 leaders from a church in Mission Viejo called Rock Hills.

Our first couple of days we toured the Temple Square area in Salt Lake City and passed out tracts. It was hot (though I hear it gets way hotter), but it was one of my favorite parts. We got all sorts of people, from the higher up Mormons to the people on the street who couldn't have cared less about Mormonism. If someone wasn't wearing their sacred undergarments we had no idea what perspective they were coming from. None of us got kicked out of the temple area (we were mostly outside), but some of our group got called names, received threats, fingers, etc. While in Salt Lake we met our host Rob Sivulka (more on him later), the ex-Mormon founder of Josephlied.com- Mike Norton, and the very well known Sandra Tanner who is the great great granddaughter of Brigham Young and co-founder of the Utah Lighthouse Ministry. Mrs. Tanner gave a great lecture and showed off the sacred undergarments, temple garments, and secret Mormon handshakes that non-Mormons usually don't get to see.

After 3 days in Salt Lake we went down to Provo to visit BYU. We went had started conversations with people over lunch and then went door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhood. I had two students with me for the door-to-door and we weren't having much luck getting into any conversations. We sat down to discuss how we might improve our tactics when I saw I elders (Mormon missionaries) across the street and jumped at the opportunity. We ended up talking to the elders for about 40 minutes. Towards the end some tension built up and apparently it was too much for the more experienced elder. He was a good deal larger than me and stepped right into my face and said, "Your scared." In my mind I was thinking, I'm scared because you look like you're about to beat me up, you're scared because you see how weak your religion is. Instead of speaking my mind I said, "You're scared too." He backed away and said, "No I'm not." At that point the younger elder tried to end the conversation. Too bad, it would have been a great story to get beat up by a Mormon missionary. In reflection, while I did try to be as non-offensive and respectful as possible, I don't think I conveyed that we were there because we care about their eternal destination. I most likely came off as just wanting to argue, so I did learn something from the situation. Hopefully at least some of the things I said took hold with the elders.

We then went down to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti. This is a huge pageant they hold every year for 8 nights, with an average of about 90-100 thousand people attending. For the 3 hours before the pageant we stood outside passing out tracts and having conversations. Some of these conversations were very fruitful, some weren't. Overall it was a tremendous experience. The first night we were there we watched the Pageant. It was incredibly offensive to Christians, but that didn't bother me because I expected it. What really got to me was the blatant blaspheme of Joseph Smith presented in the Pageant. It really brought home to me that Mormonism is man-centered religion, the key is self worship, and in that sense, it's no better than being an atheist. I was so infuriated at the blaspheme that I'm glad we didn't witness after the Pageant, I doubt I would have been very loving.

As I mentioned earlier, our host for the trip was Rob Sivulka. He runs Mormoninfo.org and does full-time ministry in Salt Lake. What defines Rob, aside from knowing just about everything and being a cool surfer-dude, is that he often carries around signs in front of the Temple and at the Pageant advertising his site and Josephlied.com. Needless to say, this usually doesn't generate a lot of love and support. When I first saw him doing his thing I was hesitant. I didn't think it was the best way of going about witnessing, but then he does do this for a living. After seeing many of the dirty looks and anger that the signs stirred up I decided I didn't want to have anything to do with it. Rob was a great guy, as long as he stood a good way away from were I was witnessing. Something changed in me though through all of our training on Mormonism and through watching the Pageant. I saw Mormonism for what it is and became more determined than ever and willing to do anything to get people out of it. We had been passing out tracts defining the differences between Mormonism and Christianity. That hadn't been working for me, it wasn't enough to let people know that Mormonism just doesn't cut it. Our last night at Manti Rob needed help. About 40 minutes before the Pageant begins he starts marching around and yelling at the top of his lungs why people need to leave Mormonism. He needed another person to follow him with a sign, and I did it. The first major thing that God did in me from the trip was boldness. Unfortunately I haven't been bold in my faith in non-Christian situations. That final night I stepped up to the plate to stand beside a man exploiting the flaws of Mormonism. We were cursed at, hassled, mocked, laughed at, etc., but I know that some of the things Rob said put a stone in people's shoes that won't go away. Next time I hope to go with signs of my own.

The second major work God did in me was realized in the midst of that boldness. I began to see people the way I believe God sees them. Overwhelmed with grief at their idolatry and sinfulness. They were blind to their flawed religion, and my heart broke for them. After we had finished marching and we were leaving I couldn't help but weep for them. I wanted so much for them to know the one true God, I would have done anything. That perspective is one that I pray I will never lose. It will sharpen my boldness when I need it most, and I believe I've been shaped into a better ambassador for Christ through that.

I'm well aware of the changes in me, but I was also greatly encourage by the students. I don't know that I've seen high school students more transformed by a mission experience in any other setting. There's something about being on the front lines with real people who need salvation that I believe makes us better Christians. At this point I cannot be grateful enough for being able to be a part of the team. And I'm more grateful as well for my salvation in Christ by grace through faith. A faith that I now have even greater assurance of.

Just a quick note for now to let everyone know that the trip was excellent. God blessed the team and myself immensely. It was certainly the most impactful mission trip I've been on, which is saying a lot. I hope to say more about what God taught me and other fun things about the trip to Utah soon. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Usually I only ask for people's thoughts on things, today I'd like to ask for your prayers. In a few hours I'll be leaving with a group on a mission trip to Utah. We'll be witnessing around Temple Square in Salt Lake for a few days and also at the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti. We have an opportunity to impact a lot of people and to be impacted ourselves. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for safety, character, wisdom, and knowledge. I'll post reflections and pictures when I get back in a week.

In the meantime, check out Hugh Hewitt for politics, John Mark Reynolds for Culture, and the Conservative Christian (Michael Gallaugher) for theology.

I've posted about my "Film and Culture" class before, but I must at least once again. The professor brought this thing up again today, but went into a deeper defining of it. This thing is what he's called the "Intentional Fallacy." I suspected it was fishy the first time he mentioned it, but today I knew for sure. We were discussing the film Independence Day, a discussion that rapidly declined in quality, and one of the students brought up that the film was likely intended for American audiences, which would exaplin the deeply American centered them of the film. The professor that we should be careful because we don't want to commit the intentional fallacy. What is this fallacy we are to be so careful to avoid? Assuming the film means what the author intended it to mean.
One of the things that puzzled me about it is that in all my philosophical studies I had never encountered this fallacy. After doing a bit of studying, it turns out that this is a "literary fallacy." The original critics that formulated the fallacy apparently didn't have film in mind, but to think that commits the fallacy. It was forumalted by Wimsatt and Beardsley in 1948, and they also came up with some other fallacies. To quote one source on it, "For Wimsatt and Beardsley, meaning was to be determined solely from close reading of a text: since we have no way of knowing what an author (at least a dead one) meant to say, we can only assume that the meaning of a text must be derived from reading it closely. They suggested that even when we have statements about the author's intention (such as diary entries, critical essays, or new works from living authors), the text means only what it says." Someone apparently in favor of it: "This is the idea that because an author wrote a work they necessarily have a better idea of what it means than the reader. Books, essays and articles are artifacts, and while the author will have insights that are unavailable to the outside observer, he or she does not have a monopoly on what the work means."
Hopefully you can see the problem with this, but in case you don't (since it appears most the people in my class didn't)... If the author's intended meaning is irrelevant to understanding the text, film, or whatever, then why whould we bother reading, watching, or listening? If I decide that the text means something that the author did not intend, then I commit the logical fallacy of a straw man. Logical fallacies are derived from the laws of logic, which are such that we cannot function without them. These sort of literary fallacies (I'm not familiar with others) are derived from postmodern hogwash. One of the professor's favorite claims is that, "To tell a story is to tell a lie." If this is the case, then he's been lying to us the entire time. He also said, "10,000 people see the Mona Lisa a day. There are 10,000 different Mona Lisas out there in people's minds, all different. You all have your Mona Lisa." Then why bother seeing the original? Why bother listening to him if all he's saying is lies?
This is the fundamental absurdity of postmodernism. There is no objective truth, I get to relativse it to whatever I decide truth is. Relativism is inherently flawed such that no one can successfully live as though it were true. It is all self-referrentially absurd. And yet, people seem so easily drawn into thinking certain things relatively that are objective. One result of the lack of critical reasoning being taught to students. No student is ever required to take critical thinking in hte public school system. The option happens to be available in college, but few are able to struggle through it because their minds are use to thinking illogically. Most students graduate college without knowing how to think correctly or critically about anything, even their field of study. The moral of the story: we must teach students, before they even enter high school, how to think. Then maybe one day professors will figure it out as well.

In celebration of Something Like Silas' new album, Divine Invitation, here's another one of their songs. This is actually the title track from their first release, Creation's Call. The new recording is simply awesome. Everyone should go and buy the new album since Silas is the best worship band out there, and you can get the CD autographed for only $9.97 at musichristian.com. You can hear samples of Silas' music at www.somethinglikesilas.com

Creation's Call

All my voice, all my heart
Couldn't capture the beauty of His art
Perfect Holiness
All His glory, all His light
Flows from His omnipotent might
Let the heaven's sing

From hill to vale they come
With shouts of joy sweeping over the earth
From distant shores they cry
Like breaking waves... The unrestricted praise

All the silence, all the dark
Could not describe the mystery of His work
From age to age

I stand on this trembling earth
To feel His eternal worth
And with my hands I raise my all to join creation's call

From hill to vale they come
With shouts of joy sweeping over the earth
From distant shores they cry
Like breaking waves... The unrestricted praise

Words and music by Eric M. Owyoung ©2000 (www.somethinglikesilas.com)

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love Pinky and the Brain, but also that one of my favorite television shows is the A-Team. One thing that kept being going last week was my brand new A-Team Season 1 on DVD, which arrived on my doorstep the day before its official release. I think Season 1 may have been the best season, as many of my favorite episodes are in it. It's simply creative television at its best.
Beyond that, it's incredibly wholesome, and shows a huge distinction between television then and now. You almost never see anyone killed on the show. In every episode you see at least one car flip over (except for on that's on a golf course and so they flip a golf cart). In all of these instances, the people inside are perfectly fine. You usually see them get out of the car afterwards. The last one I watched just had a voice insert, "Whoa, that wasn't good. You okay Carl?""Yea, I'm fine." It sounded ridiculous, especially since no one could have been in that car at least not have been seriously injured, if not killed. The A-Team is the best of the best military unit, they escaped from a top security prison compund. And yet, they never shoot a single person. Today this is an entirely different story, I don't need to elaborate since it should be obvious to everyone. What is it about our values in what we like to watch that changed over the past 20 years? We've gone from simply enjoying a good plot and things that blow up to people havng sex and people being shot up. Why?

By the way, if you're at all interested, my favorite contemporary shows are Monk and the Dead Zone.

On one hand I'm speechless, on the other, there's so much to say. Today the nation mourned, such as it has not in quite some time, and hopefully will not have too again any time soon. How do you say farewell to a man such as Reagan? I've heard some say that a week of all of this was just too long. I wish it would go on for months, and perhaps the reflections will. We all owe Reagan more than we know, a week is next to nothing in respect and honor of him.
One way we say farewell is to pay him the highest tribute a nation can. The state funeral was beautiful. It was like opening a history book and seeing the pictures on the pages come to life. It was a who's who of the past 40 years of political history, all in honor of our 40th President. Margaret Thatcher, in amazing foresight, video recorded her eulogy 18 months ago. That action alone spoke volumes, and yet her words were even more powerful. George H.W. Bush spoke of his personal relationship with his former Commander in Chief in touching and insightful words. But the one that made me tear up was George W. Bush's closing words- "Now death has done all that death can do, and as Ronald Wilson Reagan goes his way, we are left with the joyful hope he shared. In his last years he saw through a glass darkly. Now he sees his savior face to face. And we look for that fine day when we will see him again, all weariness gone, clear of mind, strong and sure and smiling again, and the sorrow of this parting gone forever. May God bless Ronald Reagan and the country he loved." Bush is a fairly decent speaker, but he shines best when relating Biblical truths and language to the situation. A touching farewell from the man who now has filled Reagan's shoes and faces many of the same challenges.
While Bush's words made me tear up, I didn't cry until Michael Reagan's eulogy this evening. I knew he was a good man, but his words struck something deeper than any other's had. He spoke of the greatest gift his dad ever gave him- the assurance that he knows where his dad is.
"When he closed his eyes, that's when I realized the gift that he gave to me, the gift that he was going to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He had, back in 1988 on a flight from Washington, D.C. to Point Mugu, told me about his love of God, his love of Christ as his Savior. I didn't know then what it all meant. But I certainly, certainly know now.
I can't think of a better gift for a father to give a son. And I hope to honor my father by giving my son Cameron and my daughter Ashley that very same gift he gave to me.
Knowing where he is this very moment, this very day, that he is in Heaven, and I can only promise my father this. Dad, when I go, I will go to Heaven, too. And you and I and my sister, Maureen, that went before us, we will dance with the heavenly host of angels before the presence of God. We will do it melanoma and Alzheimer's free. Thank you for letting me share my father, Ronald Wilson Reagan."

Michael spoke of the confidence he has that he shared with his father in their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I couldn't help but cry, because it was more beautiful than the cathedral, the salutes, the crowds, and the highest regards of a nation rich in tradition. The story of salvation that Christ brought about in Ronald and Michael was a beautiful thing, and that story carries on.
Over the past few days the Battle Hymn of the Republic has been played several times. Perhaps it's just me, but it seemed to me as though it only became stronger and more upbeat each time it was played. At first it was dreary and mournful. This morning there was a glimmer of something more in it, something filled with hope and promise. This evening, it was a song of celebration. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, His truth is marching on. How more appropriate could it be? We are mournful of his passing, but we celebrate a life well lived, and a life now fully lived in the presence of the Almighty. We can celebrate because the redeeming blood of Christ gives death no victory over us; in this life or the next. As the Apostle Paul recorded, "Where, o death, is your victory? Where, o death, is your sting?"

Some great audio clips of Ronald Reagan can be found here, especially listen to the first one, the tribute:
Reagan Remembered

Michael Moore. He is the epitame of socialist liberalism. The sort that make up what they think you want to hear in gross smear campaigns. I actually liked him up until his revealing Oscars speech. His old TV show, TV Nation I found amusing. He would call up telemarketers late at night. Things like that. Good stuff. I liked most of Bowling for Columbine, though some of it was silly. At least from what I've seen, Moore went looney post-Bowling for Columbine. He's now on the same outer planet of the galazy as Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy, Nancy Pelousi, etc. He's proven that a bad worldview leads to ridiculous results. One of those results is his new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, which happened to win the top prize at the recent Cannes Festival. Big surpise, the French thought an anti-Bush documentary was the best film of the year. I'm speechless from the shock. What's encouraging about Moore, his film, SNL, and liberals like them, is that they continually have to make things up and lie about Bush in order to bash him. They simply cannot deal with the reality that he's been a great president, that he was right about Afghanistan, Iraq, the economy, etc. Bush's record is so good they have to conjur up their madness in deceitfullness. Good for Bush.
The Socialist/Democrat party has continued to dig their own grave. Just ask America's trust in their media is going down, so is their trust in the Democratic party. Why? Because they do things like this: Buy a half-million copies of Moore's new film to distribute to contributors in October 2004. The further the DNC pushes themselves away from reality by associating with this sort of thing the less votes they will have in November. This is not a good move for them. It's much like John Kerry- everytime he makes an appearance on TV his numbers go down. The more the American people see the Democratic party for who they are the less they will like them. Bad for them, good for us.
(Hat tip to Hewitt for the DVD info)
"DNC DVD
The DNC has worked out a deal with the distributor of left-wing extremist Michael Moore's new anti-Bush film that will ensure more than a half-million DVD copies of the film will be distributed nationwide in October 2004, just a month before the general election."

**Note: The Spectator is the only source reporting the DVD deal at the moment, so it may only be rumor. But check out this interesting fact: "One of the producers of the Los Angeles concert is Harvey Weinstein, co-chair of Miramax. Weinstein also is helping the Kerry campaign by making sure that Michael Moore's Bush-bashing film, Farenheit 9/11, is distributed in the U.S. Harvey and his brother Bob, the co-chairmen of Miramax, recently acquired the rights to Moore's film, reportedly paying out of their own pockets."
Democrats, Interrupted: Kerry Campaign Rocks On

I as noted in my earlier post on the Mustard Gas and Sarin, what we've found so far was only the tip of an inevitabely large iceberg of WMDs in Iraq. U.N. Inspectors found 20 engine parts from the banned Al Samoud missle program in Jordan. So not only do we have evidence that Iraq had WMDs, but that they've been shipping them out in various ways. Gee, no wonder we've had a difficult time pleasing everyone's quotas for WMDs. I will continue to note more WMD findings as I become aware of them since the liberal media will not.

Banned Iraqi Missile Engines Found in Jordan -UN

Missile engine find stirs concern over Iraq proliferation

More madness from a postmodern lefty... I made a mistake in assuming that my "film and culture" class would be easy because the professor is a postmodernist. I figured it wouldn't matter what I wrote, even if he disagreed, I would do well simply for having an opinion. As he said today, "Everyone has their own Mona Lisa." i.e.- we all have our own idea of what the Mona Lisa is and that's true for us regardless of what it actually is. Anyway, I was wrong about the grade. I got my first quiz back today with 90/100. What was I marked down for? Making a distinction between sex and love. (This is the class where we sit around and watch porn for "educational purposes" calling it "art.")
I got 10 points off because I said that love is something different than sex. Apparently, I’m wrong because there is no objective sense of love apart from physical relations with someone. If this is true, then a father molesting or raping his daughter is really an act of love and there is nothing condemnable about it, in fact, it should be encouraged. This isn’t an isolated view either. In my handy Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus there are three definitions 1) deep affection, fondness 2) sexual passion 3) sexual relations. 2 out of 3 say love is about sex. Furthermore “fall in love” means to “develop a great (esp. sexual) love (for).” A couple of months ago I caught a snippet of a conversation between two girls on campus as I was walking by, “That’s not what boyfriends are for. Boyfriends are for sex, hanging out, stuff like that.”
C.S. Lewis wrote an entire book on the four Greek loves. Sexual love is only one of the four. This is a new trend in the history of man. Even the Greeks understood that there was more to "love" than sex. I would argue as well that, contra my Oxford dictionary, love is more than deep affection or fondness- though it’s helpful when that’s there. Love in the right sense, the true Christian sense, has to do with commitment and self-sacrifice. Paul tells husbands to love their wives just as Christ loved the church, “and gave Himself up for her.” (Eph. 5:25) How much did Christ love the church? He laid down His life in a humbling act of self-sacrifice. This by the way, is the greatest act of love possible (John 15:13). Christ’s love has nothing to do with sexual passion or relations, and while it may be motivated by “deep affection” it goes way deeper than that.
The war of words is upon us, and there is no word for Christian love if we lose “love” itself. Something else Lewis said was that over time words tend to loose their meaning. They simply become either “good” or “bad.” Love is now just “good.” This is another sign that we are moving past postmodernism and closer to a fuller post-Christian culture. Such a culture is where Christian ideas and words have no meaning to the general populace. God saves us from a society that thinks there is no such thing as love beyond sex.

I wish I could put in words the amount of gratitude and sadness that have overcome me. This weekend especially has been one of remembrance. First, of that Great Communicator, our 40th President. He restored hope and patriotism to what seemed to be a hopeless country. He re-defined what it means to be an American, and he made us all proud to bear the title. He saved the economy, tore down that wall in Germany, and won the Cold War. And he was a man of God. His values and character reflected that of the God he served so well. Unfortunately, due to my youthfulness, I remember very little of his presidency. However, I cannot help but feel a great sense of gratitude to him for what he did. We all owe Ronald Reagan more than we will ever know, or what we would ever be able to repay. Now I watch his speeches, I hear his stories. I see a man who was not shaped by politics, polls, or self-interests. I see a man who had a vision, a humble proudness, and a dignity that comes from being a servant leader. My sadness is that there are few today who resemble this man who has now left us. His voice sounds archaic, perhaps long forgotten. His values, less than two decades after his presidency, lost in the waves of time and politics.
Second, we remember that day, 60 years ago. What a day. I’ve known what happened, I’d read it in my history books in high school. There was a beach and we stormed it and it allowed us to free France, invade Germany, and win that horrible war. But today I gained a deeper appreciation for what went on there. I watched men tell their stories. They were there. Their friends fell in front of them, beside them, and behind. The seasickness, the blood, the ammunition going off all around, the smoke, the noise. I could see myself there with them, experiencing the battle first hand in some evocative sense. I could see them racing up the beaches for their lives. I could see them climbing the cliffs. I could see the pain and agony in their eyes as hope seemed to dwindle and soldiers fell left and right. But I could also see something else in their eyes. Something that told me they would rather not be any place but there. All their freedoms hung in the balance. Not just theirs, but of their friends, families, and the country they loved so dearly. In their eyes was a spark of determination and commitment. They would not waver, they could not. They would give every they could, everything they had, and many did. D-Day turned the tide in the war. The nation dropped to its knees in prayer when they heard the invasion had begun. With the cost of the beach came a wave of liberators and hope. In their eyes was a deep sense of humble self-sacrifice. One man who was there said, “I’m not a hero. We just did what we were trained to do.” The original “Rosie the Riveter” said at the dedication of the WWII Memorial in D.C., “We just did what we had to do.”
There is a deep divide between that greatest generation and this current one. This saddens me. Few youth today have any notion of sacrifice for a cause greater than themselves. It saddens me that the legacy and values of that greatest generation, and Reagan- one of the greatest of that generation, have not been passed down. We have no sense of heritage, of history; of the values and truths that shaped our great nation, and that will be our downfall. A nation who fails to remember its history is bound to repeat its failures.
Seeing the men who gave so much, and asked so little in return, has brought tears to my eyes. We owe them so much, I owe them so much. I wish I could thank each one of them personally. I wish I myself could go and follow in their footsteps. I wish we would only remember how we got here more than one day a year.
They have made me proud to be an American. I am proud of my country’s heritage. I won’t forget the men who died and gave the right of freedom to me. I stand beside all who have fought in reverence and respect for their sense of duty and honor in sacrifice. Thank you, those are all the words that I can find left in me to offer- Thank you.

1911-2004

America has lost one of the greatest of the greatest generation. Let us never forget his legacy and values.

From his Republican Convention speech in 1992:

"My fellow citizens -- those of you here in this hall and those of you at home -- I want you to know that I have always had the highest respect for you, for your common sense and intelligence and for your decency. I have always believed in you and in what you could accomplish for yourselves and for others.

And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way.

My fondest hope for each one of you -- and especially for the young people here -- is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here.

May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism. And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5338737

"Harper wore the first shirt on April 21, the day the school's Gay Straight Alliance sponsored a "Day of Silence" to protest discrimination against gays, and another shirt the following day, the lawsuit said. The first shirt read: "I will not accept what God has condemned," on the front and "Homosexuality is shameful," on the back, the suit said. The second shirt read: "Be ashamed," and "Our school embraced what God had condemned," the lawsuit said. Harper was suspended for the day after refusing to remove the shirt because it violates a dress code policy banning clothes and accessories that promote violence or hateful behavior directed at a person's sexual identity, the lawsuit said."

Tyler Chase Harper, if you're reading this, kudos! My co-worker thinks that the shirt is bad tactics, but I'm going to disagree with him for once. Here's why: Too many people, including Christians, are beginning to accept homosexuality as normal and not immoral or unbiblical. Yes, as my co-worker point was, was need to have intelligent conversations about the issue. The problem is that intelligent conversations aren't happening. Tyler's wearing of the shirts sparks discussion. It enables people to have a meaningful conversation about the issue. I also applaud Tyler for another reason. There aren't very many high schoolers who care enough about the Truth who would be bold enough to do something like this. Even if it is wrong tactfully, you have to admit that he's motivated by something that too few of our youth have today- conviction.

I agree with Tyler, the school district should be ashamed of itself, and we should be ashamed of ourselves for not fighting homosexuality with the same conviction and boldness shown by Tyler.

You can view some pics of the shirts here:
T-Shirt Controversy Turns into Full-Blown Legal Battle

To quote Michael Gallaugher, "This is the LA County crest, take a look at it. Anything in it offend you? There's something in it that offends the ACLU, and it isn't "Pomona", the Roman goddess of fruits and trees displayed front and center. It's the itty bitty cross on the right."

So, because of this little cross, the ACLU has threatened to sue L.A. County and the Board has bowed to their demands. On what grounds would they sue? Somehow, the cross being on the L.A. County crest violates the separation of church and state, and somehow, the much larger symbol of Pomona doesn't. Pomona is a pagan goddess believed in by pagans, and worshipped by many. This in some sense is an insult to the pagans, because to the ACLU their symbols don't rise to the level of being worthy to criticize.

While the ACLU may have had noble intentions when it was founded, I really don't know enough about its history to say, it certainly does not today. ACLU now stands for Anti-Christian Liberals United. If there is a Christian-related symbol in public somewhere you can be sure the ACLU will attack it. I'm not sure that the ACLU has done anything positive in recent years. Perhaps a reader out there can educate me on what good the ACLU actually does. Every time I hear about the ACLU they are attacking a Judeo-Christian symbol or Judeo-Christian ideologies. Could someone please tell me why we need the ACLU? It appears to me to be completely worthless, aside from the fact that they waste millions, if not billions, of tax-payer dollars a year.

As for the crest, it is not clear to me how the cross violate the Establishment Clause in any manner. It certainly does not restrict any religious viewpoint. If it endorses any religious viewpoint it endorses paganism. However, I don't believe it even does that. I'm in no way offended by Pomona being on the crest, and I don't see how that may imply a connection between paganism and the local L.A. County government. The absurdity of the ACLU view can be taken further. Cows and fish are religious symbols in several religious traditions, therefore, on the ACLU view, those should be removed from the crest as well. In fact, human beings have a tendency to worship a great number of things, so it's going to be hard to find anything we could put on the crest to symbolize L.A. Perhaps then there should be no crest, we just have a blank spot on the paper. Oh, but that could be an endorsement of the Hindu idea that everything is an illusion, so we can't have that. I rest my case.

If you're an L.A. County resident tell the Board what you think. They can still vote to keep the crest and fight back against the ACLU attack machine. Here are the Board members in favor of re-designing the crest in light of the ACLU:

Gloria Molina - Supervisor, First District
213-974-4111, Fax #: 213-613-1739
E-Mail: molina@bos.co.la.ca.us

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke - Supervisor, Second District
213-974-2222, Fax #: 213-680-3283
E-Mail: SecondDistrict@bos.co.la.ca.us

Zev Yaroslavsky - Supervisor, Third District
213-974-3333, Fax #: 213-625-7360
E-Mail: zev@bos.co.la.ca.us

Many have seen the photos of the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib and asked why it happened. Some have pointed fingers at the leaders, all the way up to top ranking officials. While I think this is absured, it obviously cannot be the root of the problem. If the soldiers directly involved didn't have smiles on their faces we may pass guilt elsewhere. No, the pictures tell us they enjoyed what they did. Why? The deeper issue is what goes on at our public universities.
The past two days in my "Film and Culture" class at Cal State Long Beach we've been watching a movie of which 75% was nudity and sexual activity. Essentially we've been watching porn, but don't worry, it's for "educational purposes." We are to identify the art forms contained in the film. Art. Someone pees in a jar and calls it art. What if I started beating homosexuals with a cross and called it art? If this is art, then some art is immoral. Perhaps what Hitler did had an artistic ring to it. We see this in the Hannibal Lector series, as killing the victim often is an art. Yes, some art is immoral, and calling sometihng art does not justify it's existence.
This is a sign of the deeper problem of pornography in our culture. The college dorm room party is perpetual sexual perversion and drunkeness. We send our children to the universities to become intellectuals so they can do well in life. They may receive that, they may not, but it is more likely that they will receive a more degraded view of human existence than they could anywhere else. Such influences of our culture explain Abu Ghraib. How can we be surprised at the prisoner abuse? They only were living out what our liberal, godless public education system produced.
Yes, these soldiers need to be punished, as well as anyone else who ordered or allowed this to happen. However, we need to be far more critical of the worldviews and educational system that has produced these people. If no changes are made, which they won't be, Abu Ghraib will be only the first of horrendous acts we will be ashamed of.