Link to my latest

Christian Groups Call for Cooperation
But when does it become compromise?

You can read the text here.

WorldMovers resumes tomorrow!

 After a break for our anniversary celebration last week, we will be resuming WorldMovers Sunday School class tomorrow.

Rarely would I repeat a forward here on my blog, but I received a compelling one this morning from CFC friend Diane Reilly that bears repeating and thinking about. I'm sharing it here for WorldMovers because we are pretty familiar with Marco Rubio, ever since the cover story we read about him back before the elections last fall.

The Ticket Obama Fears Most

Bruce Walker
 August 29, 2011



Governor Rick Perry



The talking heads on Fox News Special Report this Friday concurred that Marco Rubio will be on the Republican ticket next year as the vice presidential nominee. I agree.

There is virtually no downside to Rubio and the advantages to the ticket are prohibitive. He is youthful, attractive, and articulate. Rubio won a tough three-way race in Florida last year. His life story is compelling as the child of Cuban parents who worked up the hard and legal way. His conservatism on social and economic issues is unwavering. Rubio is slightly too young and inexperienced to run as president, but eight years as vice president would make him ideal presidential timber.

If Senator Rubio becomes the running mate of Governor Perry, which I believe is increasingly likely, President Obama could face his worst electoral nightmare. At the outset, both men are excellent campaigners -- articulate, likeable, attractive, and accustomed to winning elections in the diverse and large populations of Texas and Florida.



Senator Marco Rubio



Unlike Republican nominees since Reagan, Rick Perry knows how to work crowds. Perry, like Rubio, has never lost a political race. Although it is a relatively small section of his resume, his time successfully selling Bible reference books door-to-door may be as important as background in running for president.

Both Perry and Rubio have life stories, which demonstrate that the American Dream really works. Perry grew up on a cotton tenant farm in the middle of nowhere and worked hard up every step in his path to success. Rubio's parents worked in menial jobs so that their son could have a better life.

Imagine Rubio campaigning in Las Vegas, where his parents worked like so many Hispanics today, cleaning rooms and tending bars. The greatest impact of these life stories is that the Republican ticket could say just how poor people need not stay poor if government gets out of the way.



Perry and Rubio are both social and economic conservatives.The left tries to downplay the appeal of social conservatism, but to take just a single social conservative issue, abortion, the latest Rasmussen Poll shows that 55% of Americans believe that abortion is morally wrong while only 30% believe that abortion is morally acceptable and 41% of Americans believe that it is too easy to get an abortion in America while only 14% believe that it is too hard to get an abortion.

The vanilla question about whether Americans are "pro-choice" or "pro-life" is meaningless, if Republican candidates have the gumption to ask Obama in a debate whether he believes abortion is moral or immoral -- leaving the question of federal policy on abortion aside.



This particular ticket would also have profound appeal to Hispanic voters, whose support for Obama has dropped a dramatic 36 points since he took office. The impact of Rubio on the ticket, of course, is obvious: he would be the first Hispanic on a major party ticket in American history. Big chunks of Hispanic voters in 2008 voted for Obama because he was a "person of color." Reelecting a black man president has much less psychological value to Hispanic voters than electing a Hispanic who could easily be president in eight years.



The impact of Rick Perry is real, but underestimated by Beltway punditry, which listens more to high-ranking Hispanic organizational leaders rather than ordinary Hispanics. Perry has won many statewide elections in Texas, including three as governor. Almost 40% of the state is Hispanic. Governor Perry speaks Spanish, but more than that, just as a New York City or Chicago politicians grasp the nuances of European ethnic differences, so Perry understands the largely Mexican-American minority and has steadily improved his percentage of the Hispanic vote in Texas elections.



Politically savvy Perry with the first Hispanic on a national ticket as his running mate could disarm the traditional skittishness that some Hispanics have had about voting Republican. Combine that with the very real success that Perry has had in creating jobs in Texas -- compared with Obama nationally or California Democrats -- and he could make a strong argument that Perry-Rubio is precisely what most Hispanics really want in Washington.



This could be complemented by the rise of Hispanic Republicans in 2010. Susana Martinez, the conservative Republican governor of New Mexico, next door to Texas, is a prime example. The first female Hispanic governor in American history could travel throughout the Rocky Mountain region touting a Perry-Rubio ticket. It is not just Hispanic "people of color" that could connect with Hispanics. Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, both articulate and strongly Republican governors could both show that conservatives welcome immigrants from lands as distant as India.

Black voters will go overwhelmingly for Obama, but black voters vote overwhelmingly for Democrats no matter what Republicans have tried. If Hispanic voters, already accustomed to conservative Republicans senators and governors, vote in substantial numbers for conservative Republicans at the national level, then not only is Obama in trouble, but so is his party. That is why Perry-Rubio could be the ticket Democrats fears most.





It's all Steve's fault

Back on August 25, I reported in this blog a letter Steve Johnson wrote to the Star in reply to a scurrilous slam by a pro-abortionist.  I linked to it as well.  

Today the fun continues. Since there is some kind of moratorium on how often one can get a letter printed in the Star, Steve twisted my arm to reply to the latest irrational screed published by a pro-deather. You can read my reply in Star just by clicking here. You have to scroll down a bit. Refuting the rhetoric of baby-killers was not as important as a reminder to Tucsonans to remove dead plants from their yards. 

In the midst of our busy lives:  taking care of ourselves w/o government handouts, "bearing one another's burdens" in the Body of Christ, keeping the car running and the clothes clean, and communing with the Creator of the Universe, it's fun to take a few pot shots every now and then at the witless tools of enemy.

"This is the day the Lord has made..."

                                  

  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

  Psalm 90:12

        

  

Today,               September 11, 2011,

• is the 34th annual National Grandparents' Day;
• is the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks;
• is the 4th annniversary of Dove Mountain Church;
• is the 13th Sunday after Pentecost.

Personally, I find the last one the most compelling. 
                       Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness today!

My message to Gian Paul Gonzalez

Dear Mr. G,

I really appreciated the article about you in the latest issue of World.  I am sure I would enjoy knowing you, and that, as teachers, we have a lot in common. But I am also pretty sure there is a lot we don't have in common.  The article implies that you are a Christian (in one direct quote you mention Jesus), so as a brother in Christ, I have the freedom to ask you some hard questions.

You said, "My students want purpose;  they want to know that their lives have value...that they mean something." How do you answer this, Mr. G?   Do you tell them that there really is no enduring meaning outside of life in Christ? Or would that be too negative? Too intolerant? Do you present Christ as one among many ways to find meaning in life - all equally valid and undifferentiated? Or do you honor the implicit contract you have made with the state to be totally silent in matters of faith?

If you do say that meaning is found in Christ, are you above-board with your employer about this? Does your immediate supervisor know that you may be proselytizing on government time? Are you afraid of being found out? Does it cause you to behave deceitfully at times? What does that demonstrate to your students?   

You said, "If a student feels his life matters. [he's] willing to fight for it." On what basis do you tell a student his life matters? Do you tell him it matters because Gian Paul Gonzalez says so? Will that be enough when the student has moved on and forgotten you? Do you tell him his life matters because he's "special," like most public school teachers do? Do you not think he will eventually see through this...see that no one is citing an impeccable authority for such an assertion? Or do you tell him his life matters because the Bible says God formed him in his mother's womb and has plans of eternal consequence for him? If that's what you say, see the paragraph above about integrity before your employer.

Your advocates cite as one of your successes a former student who visits you every day and runs an anti-drug campaign. What is the message of the campaign?  Is it "Just say 'No!'"?  Because I'm pretty sure that failed twenty years ago. Or is it "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"?  If that's it, then I know a lot of other folks who are fools working for half the salary you make because they thought they would not be able to teach that message in a public school.

When you advocate "staying in school" and "getting your education," are you saying that education alone can redeem? When students see you pulling down a government tax-based pay check, ought they assume that you believe the government controlled public schools teach all that one needs to know for success in life?  I notice you wear a dog tag that says "Truth or Die." Are you sure that the state standards you teach by in history class represent God's truth from a Biblical world view? Or is the Biblical approach only one among many "truths." Does it even matter?

As I said, I would probably like you if we could hang out.  But I can't wish you "godspeed" without knowing your answers to these questions.*

Sincerely,

Tom Askew, Ed.D.
Educator for Christ

* 2 John 1: 10-11
  

Back to School issue(s)

This is the issue we'll be discussing tomorrow at WorldMovers, along with a hot book that was delivered into my hands this week :  Why America Needs School Choice. Written from a secular perspective in order to influence legislators, this small volume by Jay Greene is chock full of quotable one-liners, such as:  "Asking the teachers' unions about what voucher research shows is a bit like asking  the Tobacco Institute about the research on smoking and cancer."  See you in Sunday School!

The Pearl of Great Price

Wisdom from Pastor Luke Evans:

God created that which is of

Surpassing Value

which we may now obtain through

Surprising Simplicity

which ought to motivate us to behavior of

Supreme Sacrifice

(such as selling a whole field to obtain a single pearl - of great value!).

Thanks, Luke!