May 2001

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Commonwealth Commentary Newsletter"><U><B><IMG SRC="18672320.jpg" border=0 width="114" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#0066FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Commonwealth Commentary Newsletter</B></FONT><B>          </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Commonwealth Commentary Newsletter"><U><B> </B></U></A><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Commonwealth Commentary Newsletter"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="039bec00egerdp.gif"> <div> <B>May Issue: </B></div> <div> <B>Articles by Callahan,  Nowers, Meekins, Meekins, and Meekins</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c899333300.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Tiger by the tail</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c899333300.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Liberal or conservative</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c899333300.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Poor little rich boy</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c899333300.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Canonizing the Blair Witch: </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c899333300.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Environpedogogy</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c899333300.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Left Behind, a review</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c899333300.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Sci-Fi technology</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Tiger by the Tail: Danger in human waste dumped on fields </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Liberal or Conservative: Who and where are the real ones?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Poor Little Rich Boy </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Canonizing the Blair Witch: Pagan Religion More Noble than                                  Christian Belief in the Eyes of Some </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Enviropedagogy: Are Students Being Taught Science or Silliness in Regards to Ecology?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Review of a Review: Prominent Critic Off The Mark Regarding  Apocalyptic Thriller </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Out-Of-Work Sci-Fi Writer, Will Work for Story Ideas: Technology May Be Outpacing Limits Of Imagination & Ethics</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> ************************************</div> <bR> <div> Tiger by the Tail</div> <bR> <div> Hundreds of millions of liters of recycled human waste laced with every chemical and hospital refuse known to man will be dumped on rural land this year. And that volume is on such a precipitous rise that residents should be concerned that Virginia's rolling hills and picturesque farmlands are fast becoming its outhouse.</div> <bR> <div> According to the latest news reports, Virginia Supreme Court ruled that local governments may not forbid the spreading of sludge on farmland. Since the Virginia Legislature deemed industrial and hospital refuge mixed with human feces is acceptable fertilizer in Virginia local governments cannot forbid what the Legislature has licensed, authorized or required. </div> <bR> <div> Sludge, (now called the nicer sounding name of bio-solids) is the leftover waste from sewage-treatment plants. Virginia has joined a host of other states and approved the use of this unsanitary product as fertilizer. </div> <bR> <div> Therefore a growing portion of human excrement originally flushed down the toilets of Baltimore and Washington mixed with chemicals, industrial waste, and debris from abortion clinics in addition to unknown volumes pumped from holding tanks and portable toilet businesses whose refuse is often mixed with formaldehyde and, most likely, muck from slaughter houses, is being applied to the serene farmlands of Virginia, producing the vegetables we eat and feed for animals.</div> <bR> <div> Virginia sludge policy is likely contributing to the most ominous food supply disaster looming on the human horizon: Prions. </div> <bR> <div> The following is an excerpt from the December 2000 Idaho Observer:</div> <bR> <div> "Prions are crystals that grow in grain fungi. Prions are nearly indestructible. We are being exposed to prions by eating animals such as cows that eat prion-contaminated grains. We are be are being exposed to prions when we eat prion-contaminated grains. Prions are crystals; crystals are attracted to electromagnetic energy; our brains produce electromagnetic energy; prions attracted to our brains cause lesions called encephalopathies; encephalopathies cause swelling of the brain; swelling of the brain causes dementia.....Prion disease, which was called "kuru" when it was discovered in New Guinea in the early 1960s, is called "mad cow disease" in cattle, "whirling disease" in fish, "scrapie" in pigs and sheep, "wasting disease" in wild game and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in people (there is data to show that as many as 200,000 Americans who have been misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease may actually be suffering the ravages of prion disease.</div> <bR> <div> If our food supply is already contaminated with prions, which there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that it is, then "fertilizing" crops with human waste is going to exacerbate the situation."</div> <bR> <div> All over the nation communities surrounding or near sludge fertilized land are complaining of stomach pains, nose bleeds, open sores in their nostrils, difficulty breathing, sore throats, diarrhea, and skin problems. Yet, the states continue to spread this questionable fertilizer because it is economically feasible...spreading sewage on farm land is the quickest and cheapest way to get rid of it</div> <bR> <div> The sludge providers claim it is entirely safe if "applied and monitored correctly". Since there are currently no regulations requiring testing of all the materials found in sludge ( The EPA 503 Rule used as a standard requires only about ten of approximately 50,000 known chemicals to be tested) and provides only minimal standards for the various viruses and diseases lurking in the foul smelling concoction, making it is impossible to know if this horrid waste is applied or monitored correctly. For government agencies to claim that "bio-solids" are safe is to ignore a tremendously important body of published science.</div> <bR> <div> Farmers cannot be blamed for utilizing free fertilizer that both the EPA and State Legislators claim is safe. Unfortunately, neither the EPA nor the State Legislators have sufficient standardized tests and monitoring facilities to provide qualified evidence that their statements are true. In fact, there is are no standards which cover the total content of sludge.</div> <bR> <div> Virginia has joined the ranks of other states that have grabbed the sludge tiger by the tail. The suppliers have a firm grasp on this huge money-maker, and the farmers are proud of the dark green fields this waste provides . . . and all living creatures will feed off products produced by this questionable fertilizer one way or another. </div> <bR> <div> Today, perhaps, the grip on the sludge tiger appears strong by those supporting its use. But tomorrow when that tiger breaks free and septage is dumped directly onto the land regardless of heavy-metal count or pathogen level poisoning the people and the land, Virginia will feel the wrath. And that tomorrow will come . . . maybe it already has.</div> <bR> <div> J. Dori Callahan</div> <bR> <div> **************************************</div> <bR> <div> Liberal or Conservative</div> <bR> <div> Our present political system is clearly divided as much by liberals and conservatives as by the political parties. Public schools generally define conservatives as those opposed to change while liberals are those favoring change. An overly simplistic and misleading definition. Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary of the English Language doesn't offer a political definition. A recent copy of the Oxford Desk Dictionary gives a political definition of conservative as "tending to favor strict adherence to a traditional limited role for government", while liberal is defined as "favoring political and social reform." </div> <bR> <div> A conservative then favors supporting those issues and beliefs this nation was founded on. It includes recognizing that this nation was founded as a Christian nation, a Constitutional Republic and a Constitution that clearly established a limited federal government. An American conservative would strive to preserve those concepts. If they have become distorted, he would seek change to return to those values. </div> <bR> <div> A liberal on the other hand is not concerned about retaining the original constitutional values but favors changing basic values with a changing society. Since the Constitution is difficult to change legally, liberal efforts have succeeded in using the courts to make changes by referring to a "living constitution"; Code words for changing the Constitution by judicial fiat without the bother of a constitutional change. </div> <bR> <div> Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution states, "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States..." It is clear therefore that the courts have no law making authority. The liberals have corrupted this by frequently referring to court cases, such as Roe v Wade, as the law of the land. It is in fact, legally, the law of the case. </div> <bR> <div> Historically the United States Supreme Court understood that America was founded on Christian principles and Americans have always been "a religious people". Numerous books make this perfectly clear. Catherine Millard's book "God's Signature over the Nation's Capital" is one good example. But that court is gone.</div> <bR> <div> The liberal efforts to depart from our basic Christian values led to the introduction of programs such as situational ethics where there are no absolutes but moral values shift with the situation. In many cases they said "if it feels good, do it". </div> <bR> <div> Under the guise of supporting welfare, social programs and civil rights, the liberals have succeeded in calling evil good and good evil. Strongly supporting abortion and homosexuality is good. To oppose them on Christian moral grounds labels one as a radical right wing extremist.</div> <bR> <div> State Senator Saslaw recently referred to Christians that opposed special rights for homosexuals as barbarians. The John Ashcroft hearings were a clear case of religious profiling by the liberals. One Senator even claimed it was perfectly acceptable to challenge Ashcroft's religious beliefs. The liberals apparently have no shame in challenging a Christian candidate as a far right extremist while candidates that oppose our basic values are considered mainstream. </div> <bR> <div> On most issues liberals and Democrats are together and I might add fully supported by the Atheists, anti-Christians, pro-abortionists, People for the American Way, National Organization of Women and many others. Republicans are more divided having succumbed to the activist liberal propaganda and slowly compromised their basic conservative roots. One would have to look to an independent or a third party candidate to find a true American conservative today.</div> <bR> <div> The real question for our future is can the Republican party, now in full control of the federal government, slowly return us to the Christian moral values of our founders or will they merely slow down the descent, as Chuck Colson put it, to Gomorrah.</div> <bR> <div> Bill Nowers</div> <bR> <div> *********************************</div> <bR> <div> Poor Little Rich Boy</div> <bR> <div> Hard economic times have befallen the nation. It’s time to take up a collection for the most unfortunate among our number who find themselves out of work. I am sure former Vice President Al Gore will appreciate every penny you can spare.</div> <bR> <div> During coverage of the inaugural ceremonies, considerable attention was given to the financial, occupational and psychological well-being of Al Gore. Frankly, it was enough to make you sick.</div> <bR> <div> Despite the media attention, this little pauper --- according to the National Taxpayers Union --- will earn a yearly pension of $95,000. It is also reported he could earn up to $80,000 per speech. Gore is also slated to receive $305,000 in "transition expenses". The rest of us should be so lucky when we switch jobs or find ourselves laid-off .</div> <bR> <div> Ron Klain, former Chief of Staff to Al Gore, told USA Today, "He [Al Gore] is not independently wealthy." It has been disclosed that Al Gore is worth between $1 to $2 million. This indigent currently has more to his name than most of us will ever  see in our entire lifetimes. </div> <bR> <div> But then what can us lowly normal folks comprehend of the ways of those who find spacious Tudor homes in the Arlington, Virginia suburbs of Washington in which Al Gore currently resides as merely "upper-middle class". A shame he has been exiled amidst such squalor,</div> <bR> <div> Al Gore cannot be held accountable for the nature of the press coverage regarding his post-administrative existence. However, it does exhibit the kind of elitist mentality of which the former Vice President is himself a hearty partaker.</div> <bR> <div> Luckily, Al Gore was able to find gainful employment before having to stand in line at the unemployment office or having to file</div> <div> papers to receive public assistance. Yet his new career path reveals just what a big-shot hypocrite he happens to be.</div> <bR> <div> Al Gore plans to teach on the policy-related subjects of journalism and family issues at Columbia University in New York, at Fisk and Middle Tennessee State Universities in Tennessee, and at UCLA in California. From these academic posts he will lecture at Tennessee Community Colleges and at Black institutions of higher education around the country as well.</div> <bR> <div> On the surface, it would seem there is nothing wrong wit h such career aspirations since Gore is moderately versed in these subjects being he has spent the majority of his life in public service even though he lacks the degrees the rest of us would need to even get a foot in the door. But upon closer examination, the transitory nature of this  occupational arrangement violates many of the principles the former Vice President purports to hold most dear. </div> <bR> <div> In his ecological tractate Earth in the Balance, Al Gore argues that modern technology as epitomized by the internal combustion engine --- apart from the existence of mankind itself --- poses the greatest threat to the health of the planet. Unless he plans to gallop about on a beam of light, how else does he plan to fritter across country dispensing knowledge students couldn't otherwise do without?</div> <bR> <div> While Al Gore behaves inconsistently in relation to his professed core beliefs, he is in fact embracing the party-line in regards to the double-standard employed by left-wing elites. </div> <bR> <div> In Earth in the Balance, Al Gore proposes that the fundamental nature of Western civilization must be altered to comply with an  environmentally compatible paradigm. This is to be accomplished through massive government intrusion into our lives in the forms of punitive taxation, population control, and restrictions on private property. Even religion will not escape untouched since Al Gore believes that traditional Judeo-Christian theism, with its emphasis on highlighting the distinctions between the Creator and the created, serves as one of the primary causes of environmental degradation in the world today. </div> <bR> <div> While Al Gore reproduced on three occasions, vacations in the Caribbean and in Aspen as evidenced by his post-election excursions to these destinations, and now plans to gadabout the nation as a gypsy professor, he believes that your own fertility ought to be regulated by the state, your ability to travel severely curtailed, and that you ought to be made to live in tightly controlled communal housing complexes since traditional housing styles are supposedly a burden on environmental resources and promote urban sprawl.</div> <bR> <div> Many leaders, regardless of party affiliation or position inside or outside government, view themselves as superior to and owed tribute by the regular people. Al Gore is merely one manifestation of this widespread social and political disease imperiling the well-being of the American republic.</div> <bR> <div> Copyright 2001 by Frederick B. Meekins</div> <bR> <div> **************************************</div> <bR> <div> Canonizing the Blair Witch: Pagan Religion More Noble than Christian Belief in the Eyes of Some </div> <div> Isaiah 5:20 reads, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"</div> <div> Many assume this warns that those who violate this holy decree will have the judgment of God heaped upon them. But while</div> <div> God is not slack in fulfilling His promises, the forthcoming retribution might not necessarily flow directly from His fingers in the manner we might expect. Often we end up being punished by the consequences of our own actions without God intervening as a primary cause. </div> <bR> <div> In an article appearing in the January 18, 2001 edition of the Prince George's Sentinel extolling the merits of Wiccan variety witchcraft, one discovers that in calling evil good and good evil that the very epistemological categories required for rational thought and communication begin to break down. Foremost among these is the idea of truth and its basis in objective factual knowledge.</div> <bR> <div> The article begins its symphony of misinformation from almost the very first note. Sentinel staff writer Matt Carr boldly declares early in the piece, "Christianity has dwelled in the hands of war and genocide. Missionaries sent forth to deliver the teachings of God ... led to the torture of the Chinese and Japanese."</div> <bR> <div> From this, one would conclude that fanaticism is only a Christian  shortcoming. But excuse me, has anyone checked out much of Islam’s record lately? In Sudan, Christian children are sold into slavery and their legs mutilated so they cannot run away. Upon reaching adulthood, many will be executed so they wont present a threat to their masters. </div> <bR> <div> And speaking of Japan, did you know that the Christian church there was nearly wiped out by persecution after the death of Francis Xavier, the pioneering Jesuit missionary to the Orient? And the Red Chinese harassment of the modern Church is so well documented that I don’t even need to provide additional information to justify my claim.</div> <bR> <div> So much for the wonders of multiculturalism.</div> <bR> <div> Elsewhere, the Sentinel article plays so loose with the facts that it is doubtful if the statements made are worthy of classification as such. The article says of a local Wiccan, "[he] celebrates a religion of nature, much in the same way those burned at Salem did." </div> <bR> <div> In all likelihood, with the exception of the local slave, probably not one resident of Salem, Massachusetts was a practitioner of the occultic sciences. Rather there modern equivalents can be found among those falsely accused of sexual harassment simply because they’ve rubbed someone the wrong way, figuratively of course, and their accusers have more in common with Anita Hill than today’s average Christian</div> <bR> <div> Furthermore, technically there were no Wiccans in Massachusetts at the time because, quite frankly, Wicca hadn’t been invented yet. According to an article in the Atlantic Monthly reviewed on  Crosswalk.com, Professor of Religion Phillip Davis of the University of Prince Edward Island and Historian Ronald Hutton of the University of Bristol concur in their assessments that Wicca was concocted in 1950 by amateur anthropologist Gerald B. Gardner who was influenced by German romantics and various occultic practices.</div> <bR> <div> Even though Wicca does not posses a clearly delineable historical pedigree, that does not mean its ideas aren’t drawn from some kind of background. It’s just not the one filled with unicorns and flower children its adherents would like many to believe. It may have more in common with the Wicked Witch of the West depicted in the Wizard of Oz.</div> <bR> <div> For example, in Wiccan lore, practitioners of this form of spirituality trace their lineage back to the Druids. Did you know that the Druids practiced human sacrifice? </div> <bR> <div> Closely related to the Wiccans are those today professing themselves to be pagans. Their rights to bad mouth Christianity’s historical shortcomings are also suspect. Leviticus 18:21 says, "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molloch [a pagan deity] (New International Version)." Later on in the book of II Kings chapter 23, King Josiah destroys the altars upon which children were sacrificed to pagan gods. One might like to note that Wiccan feminists play a prominent role in the abortion movement. </div> <bR> <div> No wonder Wiccans are quick to heave objective history out the window.</div> <bR> <div> From the Prince George’s Sentinel article, one gets the impression that witches are the only mistreated religious group. The warlock interviewed for the article said, "I’m intimidated to put my beliefs on applications." </div> <bR> <div> Join the club. Many Christians feel the same way about the retaliation they will receive for expressing their convictions by left-wing supervisors and coworkers. Frankly, very few employment applications ask for one’s religious beliefs being that to do so violates the law. </div> <bR> <div> Yet the ironic thing is that these very same ones peeved at those apprehensive about suffering a witch among them, to use the King James English, find John Ashcroft an unfit nominee for the office of Attorney General simply because of the Christian beliefs he happens to live by.</div> <bR> <div> As a nation built upon the freedom of religion, the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to live free in their beliefs without government harassment and without actual forms of physical violence from those with whom they disagree. However, a society that extols witchcraft as virtuous and shuns Christianity as a shameful thing is further down the yellow-brick road of losing its freedom as a judgment permitted under God than most realize.</div> <bR> <div> Copyright 2001 by Frederick B. Meekins, permission to publish</div> <bR> <div> ***************************************</div> <bR> <div> Enviropedagogy: Are Students Being Taught Science or Silliness in Regards to Ecology?</div> <bR> <div> Parents send their children to school seeking to ground their offspring in the classic academic disciplines of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Parents might be surprised to learn that some public schools are acquiring a decidedly different emphasis.</div> <bR> <div> Students at a number of Maryland Schools, according to the February 8, 2001 Southern Maryland supplement of the Washington Post, are participating in an educational curriculum produced by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the State Department of Education called the Maryland Bay Schools Project.</div> <bR> <div> In this program based on eco-immersion, students are constantly bombarded by a bevy of environmental facts and fallacies throughout every facet of the school day.</div> <bR> <div> For example, students solve math problems pertaining to flies and compose odes in honor of the creatures and geographical features found along the legendary Chesapeake. However, there is more to this program than improving math and science test scores. Part of the goal is to bring about social and cultural transformation. One nine-year-old boasted in the Post story of her triumph in pressuring her parents into forsaking oyster consumption.</div> <bR> <div> Gary Heath of the State Department of Education said in the article, "There are a number of environmental problems facing the state, and we need to make sure that the children, when they are adults, can deal with that."</div> <bR> <div> The question arises are these children being taught the objective science needed to ferret out the truth or mere opinion masquerading as the only logical solution. </div> <bR> <div> It must be remembered that the Maryland Bay Schools Project was not formulated by a panel of dispassionate scholars seeking to convey an objective set of facts. The curriculum was produced in conjunction with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an organization with an interest already vested in a predetermined set of policy outcomes.</div> <bR> <div> Would the liberals usually wrapped up in these kinds of environmental programs want the social studies curriculum controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency or the Department of Defense regarding the strategic threats arrayed against the United States?</div> <div> Better yet, would they want the Southern Baptist Convention formulating a curriculum addressing America’s declining moral standards?</div> <bR> <div> The Bay Schools Project program was justified by education officials on the grounds that students need to learn early of the threats to the environment. </div> <bR> <div> As future stewards of God’s creation, children should be taught to care for and appreciate His handiwork. But must students be forced to endure environmental pessimism every hour of the school day? If this approach was practiced in a religious setting, it would be called brainwashing. . </div> <bR> <div> There are other evils in the world such as abortion, excessive taxation, undeserved welfare, and the overall sinfulness of mankind. But liberals would declare academic programs emphasizing these concerns to the exclusion of all other as absolutely morbid, and rightfully so. And even devout Christians cannot help but almost laugh at some of the private school curriculums so Bibliocentric in nature as to require students to diagram Scripture verses as part of their grammar lessons. Balance is a virtue worth cultivating.</div> <bR> <div> From my own sources, I know for a fact that some Southern Maryland schools are slacking on the basics. I have heard there are kindergartners failing to learn their letters. Others have been taught that Christmas is merely a festival of lights and that White children should celebrate the Black nationalist commemoration of Kwanzaa. Now they want to waste more time cleaning creek beds and keeping oyster flats.</div> <bR> <div> Through various court cases, liberals and secular humanists have removed Judeo-Christian beliefs as the backbone of the public education system and have declared through academic fads such as values clarification and multiculturalism that it is not the place of the school to imbue the student with a set of traditional values. It is, therefore, inappropriate for them to use the public schools to impose their revolutionary agendas on those least capable of withstanding the onslaught of this scholastic foolishness.</div> <bR> <div> Copyright 2001 by Frederick B. Meekins</div> <bR> <bR> <div> ************************************</div> <bR> <div> Review of a Review: Prominent Critic off the Mark Regarding Apocalyptic Thriller</div> <bR> <div> As a semi-professional contrarian prognosticator on current events and ideas, I’ll be the first to admit how easy it is to find fault with things falling outside the purview of one’s own take on the world. However, it would seem from John Whitehead’s review of "Left Behind" in the February 7, 2001 edition of WorldNetDaily that some people are never happy.</div> <bR> <div> Though I have not yet seen the film nor read the series of novels, I have seen similar works such as "The Omega Code", "One Moment After" and the 70‘s classics "Thief in the Night", "Image of the Beast", and "Prodigal Planet", as well as having noticed the proto-eschatological themes addressed in more main stream science fiction such as "Babylon 5" and "Earth: Final Conflict", I believe I am safe in addressing John Whitehead’s criticism of this cinematic production.</div> <bR> <div> John Whitehead levels considerable criticism at "Left Behind". Yet at one time he was one of the voices calling for greater Christian  involvement with popular culture as evidenced in a profile of him published in the December 7, 1998 edition of Christianity Today. It is in response to this yearning that the producers of "Left Behind" hope their efforts will "lead to more family-friendly movies".</div> <bR> <div> But of such efforts, John Whitehead says today, "Christian involvement in culture should be in a way that ultimately serves that end --- not merely to pour $17 million into a poorly adapted feature that does not contribute to leading viewers into a deeper relationship with their eternal Creator."</div> <bR> <div> One must assumes Mr. Whitehead thinks such edification can be found in "The Last Temptation of Christ" which he classified as "a sympathetic and reverent treatment of Christianity’s origins," according to the Christianity Today profile. It should be recalled that "The Last Temptation" was the movie that made Judas out to be the hero and Jesus as the villain.</div> <bR> <div> Mr. Whitehead further admonishes contemporary Evangelicals in light of the "Left Behind" phenomena, "Instead of dedicating their lives to taking care of the poor and the needy, American followers of Christ too often ignore His example and instead look for cheap thrills in an increasingly superficial world."</div> <bR> <div> Mr. Whitehead should be reminded of his own neglect of the down trodden in his own pursuit of glitz and the limelight. According to Christianity Today, Mr. Whitehead’s civil rights organization the Rutherford Institute, at the expense of those facing more pressing and substantial First Amendment religious rights issues, came to the defense of Paula Jones --- the floozy who wouldn’t disrobe for then Governor Clinton but who apparently had no problem doing so for Playboy photographers. </div> <bR> <div> To some Christians, it’s not legitimate missions activity unless it’s directed at some impoverished foreigner halfway around the globe. John Whitehead writes, " . . . instead  of centering their hopes, prayers and financial resources behind the tragedy in India [a reference to the recent earthquake] ... much of the American Christian community was busy hyping a movie that one reviewer called ‘unintentionally hilarious’."</div> <bR> <div> Elsewhere in his gaudy and semi-tasteless looking magazine and website Gadfly, John Whitehead has explored the metaphysical background of the "X-Files". </div> <bR> <div> How would he propose we reach out to those whom this particular genre speaks to? Somehow I don’t think vaccination clinics or soup kitchens will quite grab them where they are hurting most. An evangelistic film geared towards their interests in paranormal phenomena and government conspiracies likely would, however. And for others, such visualization would help make the obscure beasts, dragons, plagues and judgments of the Book of Revelation and other passages of Scripture relevant to their early twenty-first century lives.</div> <bR> <div> John Whitehead dismisses "Left Behind" as a "B" film and comments, "Truly Christian films embody this aim by exploring the human dimensions of loving thy neighbor as thyself, portraying servants in a world where everyone seeks to be a master, and by encountering the Divine in unexpected places ..."</div> <bR> <div> What more could Mr. Whitehead hope for than a movie set during the time of the Tribulation? </div> <bR> <div> During that period in eschatological history, the very power of Satan will be allowed the seemingly unbridled power the Prince of Darkness has always longed for since the time of his fall, and during this future era simply being a Christian could get you executed. It is under such conditions to which Americans are currently not accustomed that the protagonists of "Left Behind" must stand for truth and righteousness during the heyday of the New World Order.</div> <bR> <div> In all likelihood, "Left Behind" is not a perfect movie. However, much of the drivel and filth produced by Hollywood is not worth watching to begin with. It is a rare year for me to go more than twice and many years there is not any reason to go at all.</div> <bR> <div> It must be remembered that Christians have not had much practice at producing cinematic masterpieces that are both theologically accurate and appeal to a broad audience. This is due in large part to the sanctimonious piousness like that displayed by those such as John Whitehead, who in a t least this instance, refuse to realize the apologetic of certain literary genres and narrative techniques.</div> <bR> <div> Copyright 2001 by Frederick B. Meekins</div> <bR> <bR> <div> ************************************</div> <bR> <div> Out-Of-Work Sci-Fi Writer, Will Work for Story Ideas:</div> <div> Technology May Be Outpacing Limits Of Imagination & Ethics</div> <bR> <div> If technological progress continues at its current pace, most authors of science fiction may soon find themselves out of work as science seems ready to surpass the ingenuity of speculative fantasy literature.</div> <bR> <div> From a plot straight out of a movie or novel, a cult that worships extraterrestrials hopes to be the first to produce a cloned baby.</div> <bR> <div> According to the Sunday Times of London, the Raelian movement through the auspices of its Clonaid corporation plans to produce a duplicate of a ten months old baby boy who died</div> <div> during an operation. So from a certain naturalistic perspective, one might say these scientists hope to bring about the child’s "resurrection", if you will. </div> <div> This story is quite newsworthy in itself. However, a closer examination of those behind this effort provides pivotal insight into the forces at work in the world today and their possible implications upon the future.</div> <bR> <div> Clonaid’s attempt at human cloning will be as much a religious sacrament for the group as a scientific accomplishment. According to the Sunday Times, the Raelian movement believes human beings were themselves originally genetically engineered by extraterrestrials.</div> <bR> <div> The movement’s webpage claims that in 1973 Claude Vorilhon met an extraterrestrial who revealed to him that life on earth was, in the words of the group’s official statement, "not the work of an immaterial God, nor the result of random evolution."</div> <bR> <div> Rather terrestrial life is the work of the "Elohim". Bible scholars will note this Hebrew word for God. Vorilhon contends the word has been mistranslated and more accurately means "those who came from the sky." Upon receiving this revelation, Vorilhon changed his name to "Rael", meaning "messenger of the Elohim".</div> <bR> <div> Raelians also hope to establish an official embassy welcoming extraterrestrials to earth.</div> <div> They also reject the Book of Revelation, and for good reason as we shall discover later. </div> <bR> <div> However, one does not necessarily have to turn to Bible prophecy to see where the implications of this story are possibly leading. Viewers of the science fiction drama "Earth: Final Conflict" will note the similarity of the name adopted by the movement’s chief seer, "Rael", with an alien character on the show  named "Mael" who played a similar role in bringing extraterrestrial wisdom to mankind.</div> <bR> <div> But from here, "Earth: Final Conflict" becomes more of an indictment against the Raelian movement than an advertisement for it. In a move paralleling Raelian teaching, the Talons, or "Companions" as they prefer to be called, arrive on earth in a spirit of peace and goodwill.</div> <bR> <div> Such beneficence turns out to be merely a ruse since the true intentions of the Talons are to subjugate the earth and experiment on mankind, manipulating humanity into the Talons’ ongoing conflict with another alien species known as the Jaridians.  In pursuit of this end, over the course of the program’s four season run thus far, the Talons have placed cyber-viral implants into the minds of humans for purposes of control and genetically engineered clones referred to as "bio-surrogates" into which personalities could be downloaded from other bodies as well as attempted to produce human/alien hybrids in an attempt to solve the problem of their own infertility. There was even an early episode dealing with a "Church of the Companions" that worshipped the aliens, but little ever came of this potentially fruitful plot; one almost wonders now if it might have stepped on one to many toes.</div> <bR> <div> Most would dismiss the Raelians as silly and any insight available through "Earth: Final Conflict" as escapist entertainment. It would seem, however, that extraterrestrial theologies and UFO religions are on the rise and increasing in influence.</div> <bR> <div> Several years ago, the Heaven’s Gate Cult committed mass suicide, thinking that leaving their earthly "containers" would beam them up to a spacecraft trailing the Hale-Bopp Comet. Scientology, the religion founded by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, believes human beings are reincarnated space aliens. This particular sect is prominent among the Hollywood elite, with John Travolta and Tom Cruise perhaps being the most prominent adherents. </div> <bR> <div> Yet this worldview placing extraterrestrials on the throne of heaven once occupied by God is not confined to the less educated fringe of society. It is becoming increasingly popular among society’s so-called "sophistictaed" who cannot stomach submitting to an omnipotent God as the source of all morals and creation.</div> <bR> <div> The director of the Raelian movement’s Clonaid project, Brigette Boisselier, holds two doctorates and teaches college level chemistry. Others just as educated but perhaps not as quick to embrace the mystical ramifications of New Age theology are coming to accept the idea that life on earth is the product of intelligence beyond this planet. This is because naturalistic science needs a new alternative in light of probability declaring evolution an impossibility.</div> <bR> <div> In scientific circles, the idea that life on earth developed in outer space is referred to as "panspermia" and is advocated by no less a scientific luminary as Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA. </div> <bR> <div> But despite such stellar credentials, panspermia still doesn’t cut it. For even if it were true, it only moves the need for God back one step. Even if man was manufactured aboard a flying saucer, it does not explain where the little green Martians came from. Eventually you’re going to run up against the need for an unmoved mover originally discussed by Aristotle and given a more Christian form by Thomas Aquinas.</div> <bR> <div> Unfortunately, history teaches that those unwilling to admit their sin and need for salvation through Jesus Christ are impervious to sound theological logic regardless of the consequences. And it might not be too far fetched that cloning and UFO theology might have a role to play in end times prophecy.</div> <bR> <div> In a blasphemous attempt to imitate Jesus, the Anti-Christ might be brought about by a false virgin birth by being engineered in a laboratory as the perfect human specimen. Or upon receiving the head wound mentioned in Revelation 13, the Anti-Christ could be "resurrected" by being cloned or having his spirit "downloaded" into an additional body kept in cryogenic storage for just such an emergency. </div> <bR> <div> Demons masquerading as extraterrestrials promoting New Age religion and philosophy could come forward to take responsibility for the Rapture, claiming that Christians upon the earth at the time had to be removed for the sake of mankind’s evolutionary development.</div> <bR> <div> Such scenarios are merely a possibility of how certain eschatological events might unfold in light of current philosophical, theological, and technological developments. To many, such a course of events seems highly unlikely. But then again, who among us as little as five years ago would have thought clones and UFO cults would come to the forefront as legitimate news items in reputable journalistic sources?</div> <bR> <div> Copyright 2001 by Frederick B. Meekins</div> <bR> <div> Frederick Meekins has a web site on Tripod too --</div> <div> http://americanworldview.tripod.com </div> <div> Here is his contact info:</div> <div>  </div> <div> Frederick Meekins</div> <div> Claim Assistant</div> <div> McKeldin Library </div> <div> Serials Acquisitions</div> <div> University of Maryland</div> <div> College Park, Maryland  20742</div> <div> fm70@umail.umd.edu</div> <div> Phone: (301) 405-9311</div> <div> Fax: (301) 314-9308</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>