Malnourished Imaginations Fail To Comprehend The Significance Of “The Hunger Games”

The Hunger Games ranks among one of the top grossing movies of the past several years. Obviously, something about the film has captured the imagination and interest of a wide range of people and viewpoints.

This includes segments of the Evangelical Christian population as well. One might assume adherents of this particular belief system might be concerned about the violence and language that would seem to be inherent to a tale about teens forced to battle to the death in a form of televised postmodern gladiatorial combat.

Even if details in the story cross the line in terms of propriety, one would think there would be a number of elements within the overriding theme that the believer could find agreement.

A great deal of the saga focuses on how, as the West slides deeper into social decay, conditions revert back to the waning days of Rome. However, the issues raised by homeschool activist Kevin Swanson are in a sense even more shocking than the homicidal lotteries featured in the story.

In a sermon addressing “The Hunger Games”, Swanson focused in on a scene where one contestant plotted to eliminate a fellow competitor while they slept. To determine whether such an action was right or wrong, Swanson consulted the account in I Samuel 24 where David could have slain Saul but did not do so while the king slept because, at that point in the narrative, Saul was still the Lord's anointed King of Israel.

Instead of explicating both the Old Testament account and “The Hunger Games” as an example of where the Commandment against murder might apply, it seemed as if Swanson elevated the actions of David themselves to the status of an absolute applicable in all situations just because it was David.

Let's just hope Swanson doesn't look to what David had done to Uriah as an example of what a man should do when he desires an unattainable woman. So from the story of of Abigail's first husband, should one take away that we should threaten to whack those that diss us (to place the story in the terms of the urban vernacular of those likely on public assistance)?

Yet this is not the most controversial component of Kevin Swanson's thesis. It's not too ludicrous to hypothesize it's not very courageous to slay your enemies while they slept.

Swanson conjectures that, since David would not kill King Saul in the monarch's sleep since God had unequivocally selected Saul to be King of Israel at that specific time, the Christian is obligated to allow the operatives of an out of control government to take the lives of Americans without due process or valid cause under the universal precepts of natural law.

If exegetes arguing this position couple this notion with obeying civil authoroties in all instances, where does that end? If during the ambush police, intelligence operatives, or military personnel decide to have their way with the daughters of the proper pliant Christian, would they condemn those resisting such defilement? If not, then why must citizens passively surrender their lives and their property when their other protections from the Decalogue are wantonly violated?

Enthusiasts of unbridled power will remark that such a scenario is unlikely to ever take place. But what of the incident where New York police were alleged to have shoved a plunger up a suspect's backside? If the government is doing such things, is the proper Christian response suppose to be “Please, sir, may I have another?”

In the years ahead, Christians will be required to make ethical decisions of nuanced gradation as the institutions founded from on high to defend the innocent abandon their intended purpose to rank among the foremost of dangers. Narratives such as The Hunger Games, even if Christians cannot endorse them on every point, can assist believers in reflecting upon contingencies beyond the parameters of their normal experience.

By Frederick Meekins

Legalists Rally Against The Speculative Fiction Menace

Baptist Pastor James Cooley has posted a homily at SermonAudio.com condemning the use of the latest Superman film as an apologetic outreach.

This pastor contends that the true Christian ought to avoid the film all togeher since the symbols and motifs utilized in the story could be coopted by the Son of Perdition to delude the unsuspecting into accepting the End Times 'deceiver as the Son of God.

But the question must be asked, how does this pastor know so much about the movie if he is not simply suggesting discernment should one decide to view the film but that the film be avoided altogether?

By bringing up a topicthat does not appear blatantly wicked on the surface, doesn't a pastor worthy of the respect and pay as such have to encourage those in his congregation to be like the Bereans and to then investigate the claims on their own which might entail actually watching the film to determine for themselves whether the conclusions made by the minister are valid or not?

How does Superman not live up to Christian values if we take the narrative at face value? He doesn't make the world bow at his feet demanding worship, he renders his services for free, and for decades let the woman he's attracted to treat him like dirt before she realized who he was.

Doesn't Zod serve as evidence of what Superman would be like if he was not a highly moral individual?

The arguments against comic books and fantasy films spouted from the pulpits of the extremes of fundamentalist Christianity only decline in lucidity from that particular logical plateau.

Pastor James Cooley condemned Batman as a humanist for relying primarily upon his mind to solve crimes.

So I guess we should wait idly by for all of life's problems to miraciously resolve themselves with no effort on our part?

Another pastor condemning the conceptual construct of the superhero narrative said that God has called us to “kingdom work” and not fighting aliens.

But we may be on the cusp of a time when those missions are about to overlap.

A pastor opposed to superhero stories and comic books insisted that such narratives were wicked because intrinsic to the structure was an attempt to save the world.

So by that standard, it would be immoral to write a novel about the military especially during a conflict like World War II?

Pastor James Cooley, in a sermon titled “Super Heroes Replace Christ” said, “JRR Tolkien was a lost Catholic that went to hell, amen.”

Indeed Tolkien did if he did not rely soley on Christ to save him from his sins But so does the confused Baptist that thinks adhering to all of the Baptist peculiarities (including avoiding comic books and fantasy movies) are necessary to attest to the authenticity of one's faith.

In a sermon condemning superhero entertainment, a legalist complained that you can't have a decent understandable conversation with someone that watches movies and plays video games.

Now the legalist knows how the rest of us feel in dealing with someone whose faith doesn't simply inform or influence what they say and do but is the only thing they can obsessively talk about. By Frederick Meekins

Bioethics & Timeless Truths For Changing Times

The rate of technological and cultural change is so fast and comprehensive in these days in which we live that futurist Alvin Toffler has likened the phenomena to waves sweeping over society and labeled the feeling of disoriented perplexity that settles over us in the wake as "Future Shock". Many of these changes appear to be so profound that the pressure to abandon traditional values and beliefs from academia, media, government, and even certain factions within organized religion can feel overwhelming. However, there is more at stake than whether we send letters to acquaintances via the post office or through the computer electronically. Rather, such radical shifts of the paradigms through which we sift reality and experience will ultimately impact how we see ourselves and how we value other human beings.

With the technical complexity inherent to many of the latest developments in the fields of biology and medicine, it is easy to fall for the assumption that ethics and morality in these disciplines would better be left to the highly educated such as scientists or philosophy professors. The field of bioethics is a relatively new area of study in comparison to the totality of human knowledge. Because of its frontier nature as ethically uncharted territory, it is a discipline in desperate need of a solid Christian presence as it is pretty much a wide open field in which the ambitious and enthusiastic can plant their flag in the hopes of persuading the masses as to the propriety of a respective position.

As Christians, it is the fundamental assumption of the believer that all truth is derived from God as revealed to us either directly from His word (the Bible), deduced from reflection upon His word, or discernable from His creation construed in the light of His word. II Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All scripture is given inspired of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Likewise, Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of his hands (NIV)."

Since this is the case, God's law is written across the whole of creation. Try as men might to ignore or escape these binding commandments, they ultimately cannot and are seared by their own consciences as evidenced by the responses that often border on violence as typified by homosexual militants reacting whenever someone responds with anything less than a standing ovation or lavish government subsidies for this particular lifestyle. Romans 2:14-15 says, "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.”

Though the Bible might not address specific bioethical issues directly by name such as stem cells and cloning, a number of the Good Book's foremost passages and doctrines serve as the foundation to a Christian response to these kinds of challenges arising in the world today. As the basis to all divine law contained within both the Old and New Testaments, the Ten Commandments serve as the guiding principles for all healthy relationships with both God and man. Prominent among these is the injunction "Thou shalt not murder."

This admonition was not handed down arbitrarily just so God could laud his authority and power over us. Rather, this commandment was set in place as recognition of man's unique status as a creature made in the image of God. Genesis 1:26-27 says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image'...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." This image of God in each individual is so sacred that no individual should be able to take the life of another without serious consequences. Genesis 9:6 warns, "Whoever sheds the blood of man; by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."

Thus, the fundamental consideration in regards to these complex issues arising as a result of advances in biotechnology is that of personhood. As these scientific developments promise more and more of the things we as human beings crave the most in our earthly lives such as freedom from disease, prolonged life, or even enhanced abilities and children designed to our specifications, it becomes easier and easier to view other human beings as a means to achieve these goals for ourselves rather than as those whose lives we would like to see improved.

For while all of the issues raised in a cursory bioethics survey start off with noble-sounding justifications, when we look behind the lofty pronouncements, many of us would be shocked by the staggering numbers of bodies concealed behind the curtain. Perhaps one of the first bioethics debates to grip the public consciousness was no doubt abortion.

Those opposed to the practice argued that the procedure so dehumanized the unborn that the utilitarian allure of convenience would prove so seductive that the value would be invoked to justify the disposal of other members of the human family not measuring up to some arbitrary standard of productivity or quality of life. Since the time of its legalization, abortion has continued to divide the American electorate. This barbaric practice has been joined by a plethora of additional bioethical conundrums and outrages.

If anything, the potential of human cloning and the use of stem cells harvested from either fetuses falling victim to the abortionists knife or embryos purposefully formed in a laboratory to destroy in order to collect these genetic components garner even more headlines. At the other end of the spectrum of life, physicians are intervening to end the lives of those deemed a waste of recourses such as in the case of Terri Schiavo. This woman would have undoubtedly remained alive if she had not been denied basic nutrition and hydration, actions that could cause considerable legal trouble with the likes of PETA or the Humane Society should you decide to inflict such appalling mistreatment upon the family dog.

Even though the strongest and most direct moral case is the one that boldly stands upon the Word of God as its ultimate foundation, Western culture has become so "de-theized" (the very thing that causes human life to be devalued in the first place) that if one does not introduce these theories and concepts surreptitiously at first, one may find oneself excluded from the public policy debates where these kinds of decisions are made. In “Moral Choices: An Introduction To Ethics”, Scott Rae provides a framework through which the believer can introduce Biblical principles into these debates without initially coming across like some kind of “religious lunatic”. In today’s philosophical climate, all it takes to get that slur hurled at you is to question the prudence or propriety of the increasingly popular urge to copulate with anything that moves (or even with that which doesn’t according to the necrophiliacs who, if you search hard enough, probably endow a professorship at some prestigious university or a public interest lobbying group at some swanky office building not far from Capitol Hill).

A professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Ethics at the Talbot School of Theology, Rae shows that all truth is God’s truth and how the best philosophical thinking reflects this foundation. These seemingly disparate approaches to knowledge (faith and reason) find a connection through natural law. This approach to jurisprudence and ethics holds that there are certain principles binding upon all people with slight variations that produce the kinds of circumstances under which human beings thrive. These include the universality of heterosexual marriage, respect for private property, and prohibitions against murder.

“Moral Choices: An Introduction To Ethics” equips the reader to ferret out the hidden moral assumptions of those opposed to the Judeo-Christian approach to these issues. A number of the alternative ethical systems explored include utilitarianism (the right option is that producing the greatest good for the greatest number), ethical egoism (the morality of an act is determined by one’s self-interest), emotivism (morality is merely an enunciation of the inner feelings of an individual making an ethical pronouncement), and relativism (right and wrong change depending upon the context of a particular situation with there being no eternal absolute). It is emphasized that the advocates of these positions cannot accuse the Christian believer of bias and not being objective unless nontheists want to shoot themselves in the foot as well.

“Moral Choices: An Introduction To Ethics” provides the student with a multi-step framework of analysis that will assist the individual in weeding through complex issues that they may initially find intimidating and beyond their expertise but which can be more easily comprehended once boiled down to their constituent parts (105-107). These steps are listed as follows: (1) Gather the facts (one should obtain as much information about a specific case as possible). (2) Determine the ethical issues (these can be stated in the form of the conflicting claims at stake). (3) What principles have a bearing on the case (these are the principles at the heart of each competing position)? (4) List the alternatives (these consist of possible solutions to the moral dilemma). (5) Compare the alternatives with the principles (in this step one eliminates the possible solutions by determining their moral superiority or propriety). (6) Consider the consequences (in this step, one contemplates the implications of the alternatives). (7) Make a decision after analyzing and contemplating the information.

While this is important information, none of it will do any good unless Christians and those troubled by the disregard for human life sweeping across the culture get their message out to the wider public. Most will assume that as common everyday people not holding positions of influence in either academia, the medical profession, or within the formal ecclesiastical structure of the organized church that there is little that they can do to assist in this daunting struggle. However, with the advent of certain technologies as revolutionary to the realm of communications as the breakthroughs in genetic manipulation are to the field of biology, their voices can reach farther than they might initially imagine.

With technologies such as blogging and social media, independent voices laboring on their own (often derided by critics as geeks in pajamas) have coalesced into a source of opinion and information that in certain respects is coming to challenge the predominance of the mainstream media. Therefore, Christians can very easily use the new media to get their position out to the public regarding a wide range of bioethical issues.

Fundamental to the Christian understanding of the discipline is the pivotal role personhood plays regarding many of the issues at the forefront of bioethics. However, a number of voices within the Transhumanist movement (the ideology that humans should incorporate into their bodies mechanical or genetic enhancements so that the species might move beyond the the limitations inherent to our own nature) believe the definition of personhood should move beyond run of the mill human beings to include cyborgs, androids, and genetically engineered human/animal hybrids.

One doesn't have to be an expert in robotics or genetics to warn of the human rights horrors that would likely result should such a line of research be allowed to advance too far beyond the stages of theoretical speculation. One merely need to have seen a few of the Borg episodes of Star Trek and point out what this kind of tinkering backed by a communistic outlook leads to.

The future is there for those that want it the most. It will either go to those that believe that the masses exist for the benefit of the elite as the push onward towards their New World Order. Or, it will go towards those that view each individual as being created in the image of God, existing within a framework of divine laws that allow the individual to live life to its fullest while protecting each of us from the dangers on the prowl in a fallen world.

by Frederick Meekins

Abolished Planetarium Placed Under The Microscope

According to the 4/2/10 edition of the Washington Post, a number of school districts are on the verge of closing down their planetariums. Planetariums are structures where images of the stellar skies are recreated using assorted audio visual equipment.

Educational administrators claim that, in this era of limited budgetary resources, it costs too much to make the technological enhancements necessary to ensure a similar wow factor among the students of today accustomed to the visual wonders capable with advanced electronics. While that may be true to an extent, there is also an orientation of pedagogical methodology here that will impact generations of school children to come and possibly play a role in determining what kind of country America will become.

Constance Skelton, Science Supervisor for Arlington, Virginia schools mused according to the Washington Post, “...that while the space race provided a captivating, teachable moment for yesterday’s budding scientist, newer issues such as climate change are likely to inspire tomorrows.”

So in other words, instead of encouraging young minds to marvel at the wonders of the universe, expanding the frontiers of knowledge, and increasing prosperity, students are to be conditioned into embracing the limitations decided upon for them by elites and shamed for enjoying a standard of technology beyond that utilized by the hominid apemen from the opening scenes of "2001: A Space Odyssey". This is what it means to emphasize the Ecology Age over the Space Age.

It is not reading too much into things to make such a point. It is the systematic goal of progressivist liberalism at all levels of government and culture to curtail American power and influence even if the other world powers have no intentions of abiding by such diminished expectations.

For example, the Obama administration announced in 2010 the cancellation of the Constellation program, essentially scrapping plans to return to the Moon that would have eventually established a permanent lunar base. Neither is there even much of a plan to replace America’s decommissioned space shuttle fleet.

Instead, the NASA of the 21st century will rely primarily on the Russian space service to ferry personnel and supplies back and forth to the International Space Station. No wonder that orbital port’s intended name of “Freedom” was dropped before the project even got off the ground.

Just because Obama is giddy about U.S. power and influence receding into the sunset, that doesn’t mean other nations are going to be as contented about curtailing their scope. Both China and India have aspirations about visiting the Earth’s only natural satellite.

Big deal, those with terrestrially bound imaginations might respond. Isn’t going to the Moon not much more than a photo op where astronauts do little more than plant the flag and knock a few golf balls around in microgravity?

The Moon represents much more to the planetary power willing to plant its flag there than a symbolic effort and gesture. It will be from the Moon that mankind will set sail out into the cosmos and the Moon could very well be a vital staging area for any planetary empire seeking to control or exert influence over the Earth itself.

Does anyone believe that the world will be better off with outer space under the control of the Red Chinese and Russia or rather the United States?

Whether or not school districts really have the financial resources to continue their planetarium programs is not the primary issue. What should concern every American is that such a reason would be invoked to justify dismantling imagination and thus the opportunities of future generations.

By Frederick Meekins

A Conservative Environmental Statement

Over the course of the past several decades, an entire industry has arisen establishing an ideological and philosophical framework addressing the environmental issues facing modern society. Much of this thought stems from the worldview of contemporary liberalism, which often exhibits a mindset inimical to traditional religion and American socio-political culture and economics. The time has arisen for conservative thinkers to devise schools of thought incorporating their finest principles and presuppositions with knowledge of what is happening to the handiwork of the Creator.

This is not some radical departure from the norm. After all, Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, two individuals responsible for laying the framework of America's federal resource preservation programs, were Republicans.

While acknowledging that there are others in the country having different religions, American and Western civilization must reembrace its Judeo-Christian foundations in order to save the environment. Many environmentalists criticize Christianity for providing a philosophical justification for the degradation of the Earth. However, what these critics have failed to realize is that this is only one interpretation of this faith in regards to the environment.

Even though man is given the instruction to subdue the Earth, no where in Christian Scripture is he given permission to wantonly destroy what he has not created. In fact, it could be argued that the opposite is true. According to theologian Tony Campolo in "How To Rescue The Earth Without Worshipping Nature", it is in fact contradictory to man's Biblical role of stewardship over the Earth to callously destroy nature (194).

Furthermore, it could be reasoned that, since God created the universe, only He has the right to destroy it forever. Therefore, man's attempts to do so could be deemed a form of idolatry violating the First and Second Commandments.

By getting back to their religious, political and economic roots, Americans would also be helping the environment as well. In essence, modern conservatism can be good for the environment.

Often, environmental ideologues and activists promote the message that we must be saved from ourselves and that it must be accomplished through a totalitarian revolution on par with the one undertaken by the Bolsheviks. This is not the case.

The key to ecological preservation and to an extent restoration lies not in collectivism but in the very cornerstone of liberty. That is none other than private property.

No doubt to the dismay of many socialists masquerading as guardians of the biosphere, there can exist a body of thought derived from Christian and conservative conceptions of property ownership concerned with the notion of environmental preservation. Several of these works were reviewed in the 9/11/95 edition of the Washington Times Weekly Edition by Jonathan Adler, at the time director of Environmental Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

One book reviewed, "Property Rights In The Defense Of Nature" by Elizabeth Brubaker argues that property ownership is the best form of environmental protection. When individuals own something, for instance land as property, they are more apt to care for it because their futures and prosperity are intertwined with it.

In a sense, this notion is related to Garret Hardin's tragedy of the commons. The commons did not ultimately suffer because of insufficient bureaucratic regulation. The commons were ravaged because the people saw them as a public resource and were not psychologically invested in the preservation of this resource in the same way if these plots were privately held.

Likewise, big government is not necessarily the savior of the environment it is often made out to be. If anything, the evidence points towards the opposite conclusion.

The largest, most pervasive governments in human history behind the Iron Curtain were guilty of the most atrocious environmental tragedies. The receding Ural Sea and the Chernobyl nuclear reactor both were within the borders of the Soviet Union, the very epitome of a planned economy.

Often in trendy environmental circles one hears that “small is beautiful”. The very same individuals mouthing this platitude then turn around and advocate for large global bureaucracies.

Historian Anna Branwell notes in “Ecology In The Twentieth Century” that it is contradictory to advocate grassroots participatory democracy as an environmental cure while at the same time laying the groundwork for a coercive globalist agenda which utterly ignores the expressed will of the people. Centralized government planning fails for the same reason that the commons ended up as such a tragedy.

A hierarchical bureaucracy takes away freedom of the individual, causing him to have no stake in the outcome. Thus, bureaucracy has the tendency to thwart many of the laudable goals it was allegedly intended to achieve.

Despite this discrepancy between the small-is-beautiful crowd and their affinity towards heavy-handed government solutions, society would do well to remember this axiom of social organization.

Surprisingly, there is a consensus developing between a number of grassroots activists on both the left and the right that Washington is often ill prepared to handle local environmental problems. Too many environmental bureaucrats, institutions, and special interest groups have intertwined themselves with the entrenched political establishment. Certain varieties of both liberals and conservatives have lamented the tragedy wrought by government subsidies such as the case of the Forest Service selling the nation’s timber resources below their assessed market value.

The tone of this analysis should not be taken as that of a libertarian manifesto. As a fallen and sinful creature, man will always need some level of governmental regulation.

However, at the same time, it needs to be realized that government must have checks placed upon it because it is ultimately staffed by those having the same sin nature these agencies were instituted to guard against. Rather than harassing an innocent individual for removing a tree from his wetland property, governments should instead concentrate their efforts on rogue corporations harboring loyalties to no nation or overriding moral principles. Profit, in and of itself, is not evil; however the way it can be earned is.

The preservation of the environment does not require a radical transformation of human values and society. Rather, the effort requires Americans to reembrace those core values at the heart of their unique national identity --- thrift, nobility, and individual responsibility. Over the years, a number of Americans have lost touch with these values in part as a result of interferences on the part of a government thinking it knows best.

However, through the curtailment of government subsidies and through the punishment of known polluters, the beneficent invisible hand described by Scottish economist Adam Smith will guide the nation in the selection of policies felicitous to freedom, flora, and fauna. Dominion over nature does not always translate into its conquest or destruction, but rather the oversight of these treasures and resources in the name of their omnipotent Creator.

by Frederick Meekins

Dying for an Answer: An Attempted Theodicy to the Problem of Evil

It is perhaps one of the greatest intellectual stumbling blocks in all of religious thought.  As much as any soul would like to avoid the topic all together, sooner or later each person will be forced to grapple with the seemingly incongruous realties resulting from the simultaneous existence of both a sovereign God and the prevalence of evil in the world.  To some, the disconcerting existential trauma of suffering in their lives and in the lives of those around them is enough to make one come down in the negative in their answer to the God question.  However, upon deeper reflection one is forced to realize that --- though still mind boggling --- it is not necessarily inconsistent for both evil and the Biblical conception of God to exist at the same time.

In the hopes of gaining just a bit of perspective into such an overwhelming universal mystery, it is probably best to start out by formulating the problem in a summarized written form.  Norman Geisler in “Introduction To Philosophy: A Christian Perspective” states the problem in the following manner: “(1) If God is all-powerful, He could destroy evil.  (2) If God is all-good, He would destroy evil. (3) But evil exists. (4) Therefore, there is no such God (Geisler, 274).”  To establish a credible defense to these charges, the Christian must show that evil does not necessarily upset the divinely appointed applecart and is allowed to exist because of the purpose it serves in subordination to higher, more important realities even if these do not always make sense to finite human sensibilities.

At the heart of this debate is a discussion as to both the nature of God and the nature of evil.  As to the ethical nature of God, Matthew 5:48 instructs the reader, “Be ye therefore  perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.”  However, that goodness is not like unto that of a saintly grandmother, though kind and loving in all of her intentions, who is helpless to prevent the world from deteriorating all around her.

In the spirit of the Rooseveltian axiom of speaking softly and carrying a big stick, God has the power necessary to carry through implementing how He thinks things ought to be.  Colossians 1:17 says, “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”  This is further elaborated and extended in Acts 17:28 which reads, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being...” 

Pretty much nothing happens without God knowing about it and at least allowing it to happen by not intervening to prevent it even if He himself does not endorse the action, behavior, or event in question.   Evil, by its very nature on the other hand, is a thought or deed violating God's nature of absolute goodness as expressed in the form of His natural and special revelation to those who inhabit the universe He created.  

Yet, if God really does have the whole world in His hands as the old spiritual suggests, there needs to be a bit of explanation on the part of the apologist or theologian.  For if God really is in sovereign control, one must show how this fits together with passages such as I John 1:5 which says, "This then is the message we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

The first step in eliminating the apparent contradiction arising between the existence of both God and evil is to show how evil might serve some purpose or be allowed to exist as the unfortunate byproduct of some more comprehensive good.  Perhaps the best response Christian thinkers have provided thus far over the centuries is probably the so-called "Free Will Defense".   

The underlying assumption of the Free Will Defense posits that the fault and consequences for evil in the world lies solely on the shoulders of those who commit moral transgressions and exhibit ethical shortcomings rather than upon a God imposing them upon the world from the outside.  Scripture bears much of this idea out in passages such as Romans 5:12 which reads, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned..."   Thus, it is pretty much our own fault as a species as a whole for the misery rampaging across the face of the earth and in individual lives.

While such a theory might help account for things such as crime, war, and even sickness since none of us have escaped the stain of sin, by itself it does not provide enough explanation to account for the tragedy arising from natural disasters (often referred to as so-called “acts of God”) or why God does not normally intervene to prevent ne’er-do-wells from inflicting pain and suffering upon their victims innocent in terms of instigating these particular acts of malice.  Both of these quandaries find their answer in what Ronald Nash calls the “Natural Law Theodicy” or what John Frame refers to as the “Stable Environment Defense”.

Frame notes in “Apologetics To The Glory Of God”  that a stable environment is fundamental to human existence (164).  Ronald Nash writes in “Faith & Reason: Searching For A Rational Faith”, “Free rational action requires a world of natural objects governed by natural laws (200).” 

C.S. Lewis adds to this perspective in “The Problem Of Pain” , “But if matter is to serve as a neutral field it must have a fixed nature of its own ... if you were introduced into a world which thus varied at my every whim, you would be quite unable to act in it and would lose the exercise of your free will (19).”  Lewis continues in the following paragraph, “Again, if matter has a fixed nature and obeys constant laws, not all states of matter will be equally agreeable to a given soul, nor beneficial for that matter which he calls his body (20).”

Thus in essence, the same system of reasonably stable natural laws that allows man to survive and even thrive in an otherwise hostile universe can also end up allowing the very same components of nature that man requires for his very existence to be turned on him and to inflict harm upon him.  Lewis points out how fire can either warm the flesh or burn it. 

This is wrought with consequences as to why both nature and man seem capable of raining down misery with impunity.  As to the issue of natural disasters, Romans 8:20-22 explains, "For the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it... We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time (NIV)."  Thus, the very physical setting of creation is under the curse not unlike that imposed upon humanity for the fall of the species into sin.

Though the providence of God no doubt often spares certain individuals from befalling the ferocity of a world out of control, the system of physical laws through which the natural world is governed is usually left in place for the overall benefit of finite kind.  For we would be unable to adjust in our current condition to a constantly changing and fluctuating cosmos.  This principle readily applies to those bent on using physical matter to inflict their own corrupt wills upon secondary by-standing parties. 

For example, one can use a baseball bat to enjoy an afternoon of leisurely recreation or to work someone over during an armed robbery.   While we would all like God to intervene to prevent physical matter and natural forces from wreaking havoc upon us, in all likelihood doing so would inflict even greater harm upon the human species and the world in their current condition than simply allowing these contingent entities to continue on until the so-called end of history and the beginning of eternity.

Much of this theodicy is focused upon the preeminence of freedom in the relationships established under the terms of the divine economy.  But some might argue that it is at this point of imbuing the actors in the universal drama with their own sense of freedom that God erred in His drafting of the cosmic screenplay.  However, it is because of His absolute goodness that God has seen fit to grant some degree of say-so to those He loves the most.

It is because of the overwhelming sense of importance placed upon love that freedom must take precedence over order and control though freedom and love take place within the boundaries established by this order and control.  For as any lovesick high school student turned down for the prom eventually realizes, love must be given freely or it is not true love.

The Scripture says in Joshua 24:15, "....choose you this day whom ye will serve."  The text does not say that the decision will be thrust upon you.  The Lord will hear enough whining on the Day of Judgment.  He does not need to make His task more difficult by assigning the responsibility for our eternal fates and destinies to any party other than ourselves.

For centuries, skeptics used the problem of evil to chip away at the foundations of theism.  However, the fact that the objection can be raised at all points towards the affirmative in its conclusion to the God question. 

Human beings recoil in horror as they do to the pain and unfairness of the world since it is such a shocking affront to the way things were originally intended to be.  Atheism uses this reaction deep within the soul to make its case for a totally naturalistic universe.   But if evil, pain, and suffering are simply a part of the natural order, on what grounds are we justified in railing against it, and for that matter, how are we even capable of determining something has gone awry in the first place?

If evil is nothing more than part of the backdrop against which life plays itself out, man should barely notice it.  For example, most normal people do not lie awake at night wondering why there is oxygen in the world or work themselves up into having an anxiety attack despairing as to why they will have to eat breakfast in the morning.  The ability to complain about and speak out against evil points to the reality of some transcendent standard existing above the fray by which to justify this innate tendency towards making judgments.

One might counter that these standards simply exist within the individual as personal conscience.  Yet both the daily news and the pages of history are replete with examples of how competing interpretations of these principles differ considerably and the conflicts that often arise without appeal to a yet higher arbitrating authority.

Thus, some external standard must exist in order to tell the difference between right and wrong.  The only sufficient basis for this criteria is found in God.  Alister McGrath provides the following proof in “Intellectuals Don’t Need God & Other Modern Myths“:  “(A). Unless there is a God, there cannot be objectively binding moral obligations. (B). Objectively binding moral obligations exist. (C). Therefore, there is a God (40).”

At this point, the Christian thinker ought to take the problem of evil, invert it, and turn it against the critics of faith.  John MacArthur writes in "Terrorism, Jihad & The Bible", his response to the September 2001 terrorist attack upon the United States, “The question we ought to ask is not why disasters happen sometimes.  What we ought to ask is why don’t disasters happen all of the time (65).”

The problem really is not so much the problem of evil but rather the problem of pleasure.  For human beings have done such a superb job messing up the world, that if God did not exist, how does any pleasure exist at all?  And if God does exist, why does He continue to bless mankind despite the rebellion, animus, and contempt characteristically displayed on the part of the species to its benevolent Creator? 

James 1:7 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”  No matter how wretched life can get, somewhere along the way most people can recall at least a single moment of fleeting kindness in their lives and usually more.

Even if the Christian takes the time to carefully delineate the case that God is not responsible for the existence of evil in the world and how the existence of phenomena morally classified as such does not contradict His nature of absolute holiness, this is often still not enough to satisfy some of the more rigorous skeptics.  These voices will counter that, even though the above theistic assertion might be true, God is still the bad guy in this story.  In their eyes, He has not done enough to use His immense power to rectify the situation.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.  God has been far from passive in solving this problem He did not create.

Kenneth Boa and Robert Bowman write in "An Unchanging Faith In A Changing World: Understanding & Responding To Critical Issues Christians Face Today", "God has embraced this in the most intimate way possible through the abusive treatment His Son received when he was tortured and crucified (81)."  These apologists continue, "Thus, the real problem of evil --- ...whether anything can be done to overcome it and bring good out of it --- has been answered (81)."  In essence, the problem has already been solved.  The thing is that we are so mired in the flow of time that we are not yet able to fully enjoy the effects of this resolution.

God did not run away from the problem, but instead tackled its resolution head on in the most enthusiastic manner imaginable by allowing pain and evil to be visited upon Himself and in the person of His Son Jesus Christ.  Nor did God gloss over the reality of evil in the attempt to buttress His position by spinning the matter in His favor by downplaying our pain.

God comes at the issue in such a straightforward manner that His blunt forthrightness would make plain-spoken newsman Bill O'Reilly blush.  Job 14:1 declares, "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble." 

God could very well quote the following from that old country song when we grow weary of the troubles inherent to life in this world: "I beg your pardon.  I never promised you a rose garden."  He does, however, promise to do away with them in the next world where He will wipe away every tear according to Revelation 21:4.  If God really was little more than a fairy tale, would the authors of Scripture include those texts that do little to sooth the troubled soul about the bleakness this side of  Heaven and instead force the individual to confront some rather starting realities?

The problem of evil has plagued the mind of man at least since the day the first parents were expelled from the Garden of Eden for disobedience.  However, the problem is not so much that God is a messed-up illogical being but rather that man is so limited in his capacity for reason that he is unable to ascend to the level of understanding necessary to comprehend the operational totality of the universe at the level of cosmic completeness.

God let's a whining Job have it in Job 38:3-4 and beyond when the Lord inquires, "Gird up now thy loins like a man [translated as "brace yourself' in the NIV]; for I will demand of then an answer thou me.  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Declare if you hast understanding." 

And while man can theodicize until he is blue in the face, such answers provide only a modicum of comfort when one befalls ill health, when a family member passes away, or when religious fanatics fly airplanes into skyscrapers.  During such trials, the best one can hope for are the reassurances found in Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purposes."

Bibliography:

Boa, Kenneth and Bowman Robert. "An Unchanging Faith in a Changing World: Understanding and Responding to Critical Issues That Face Christians Today." Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997.

Frame, John. "Apologetics To The Glory Of God: An Introduction."  Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishers, 1994.

Geisler, Norman & Feinberg, Paul. "Introduction To Philosophy: An Introduction." Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1980.

Lewis, C.S. "The Problem Of Pain." New York, New York: MacMillian Publishing, Eighteenth Printing, 1973.

MacArthur, John. "Terrorism, Jihad & The Bible: A Response To The Terrorist Attacks.: Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2001.

McGrath, Allister. "Intellectuals Don't Need God & Other Modern Myths: Building Bridges To Faith Through Apologetics."  Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993.

by Frederick Meekins

 

 

 

 

Adebolajo Finger painting in Blood

by David Lawrence

Michael Adebolajo said after decapitating Lee Rigby, “The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers, and this British soldier is eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth.”

 

Adebolajo stood in the street holding a knife and a meat cleaver and said, “We swear by almighty Allah that we will never stop fighting you.” 

 

His hands were red like he had been finger painting in blood.  Actually, he was like one of Mengele’s demented Nazi children justifying his ridiculous peacetime killing in a neutral place by announcing that “Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers.” He blames the English for unspecified crimes and then commits an insane, individualistic bloody crime. He is the negative image of an Aryan. He is a black racist. 

 

Adebolajo doesn’t even realize that the British kill hardly any Muslims compared to the Americans and that the deaths of Muslims are in retribution for Muslim consistent terrorism and the murder of innocents around the world. If Muslims weren’t so bloodthirsty and jihad-bent, there would be no Muslim killings by British or anyone else.

 

The killings in Iraq were to depose a monstrous tyrant, Sadam Hussein and stop possibly misperceived weapons of mass destruction.  Our first attack on Afghanistan was in retribution for 9-11.  An attack more justified even than our war on Japan after Pearl Harbor.

 

Another jihad-driven moron, Dzhokbar Tsarnaev, wrote in a backyard boat, “When you attack one Muslim you attack all Muslims.” But Tsarnaev deserved attack.  He is a conscienceless murderer like Adebolajo.  He uses ideology as an excuse for heinous behavior. He is not an innocent target.  He has earned his death.

 

Adebolajo is a bloody, finger-painting moron who will unfortunately be looked at as a hero by all his deranged brothers.  Until the Muslims reject the Adebolajo’s of the world, this retarded holy war will continue. 

Lemonade Laws Leave Sour Taste

For generations, lemonade stands taught numerous children a variety of fundamental realities regarding the nature of the world and life beyond the confined of their particular family units. These undertakings still do.

The thing of it is, though, these lessons have very little to do with how providing a desired product along with attentive costumer service if the way to advance economically. Rather, an increasing number of young people are learning from these undertakings that the America that they will likely live the majority of their lives in (if the country does not collapse entirely) will increasingly become a nation where such blatant displays of individuality and personal achievement will be met with hostility and resistance bordering on what cannot be described as anything other than violence.

In most of these instances, the narrative unfolds something like this.

The children are informed that they cannot operate their lemonade stand because they have not obtained the proper permit from the authorities in question.

Those reading these paragraphs sequentially might be inclined to remark that the situation described above hardly classifies as a threat of violence.

Perhaps it is not directly. But what about the instance that occurred outside the U.S. Open in the neighborhood of the Congressional Country Club in the Washington, Metropolitan Area where one outlaw beverage dispenser was slapped with a $500 fine?

With the following observation, renowned economist Walter Williams would likely concur. Whenever a government imposes a fine, what the authorities are actually doing is issuing a threat against the alleged violators of some regulation concocted by any number of state agencies.

If you don't think violence or perhaps rather force (for those that somehow think verbal precision is going to somehow magically protect you from being hauled off to some detention camp or deflect bullets like Superman once the gunfire starts), won't be used against the cited party should they refuse to desist or not pay the fine you have been drinking something far stronger than dixie cup lemonade.

Perhaps the greatest lesson those crushed by the prerogatives of the state in this fashion learn is to never look within themselves to what it takes to get ahead or to do anything that sets themselves apart from the more docile members of the COMMUNITY.

Tis better, in the eyes of the statist, for the individual to accept and embrace the meager pittance and station bestowed upon you by those that have been deemed more qualified than yourself to determine your place for you in the socioeconomic order.

The purpose of these enforcement actions is to rid our nation from such independently inclined riffraff. After all, there are even now so-called "Christians" insisting that what is wrong with the cinematic Western as epitomized by John Wayne and the Cartwrights is not so much gun play but rather that such figures dared to take it upon themselves as individuals or as independent families to do what needed to be done without consultation with the COMMUNITY.

Those observing (especially the young) learn how the regulation is cast is even more important than the regulation itself.

For example, in one case in Georgia, a local police chief justified the disbandment of one particularly notorious lemonade distribution ring composed primarily of adolescent girls on the grounds that the state did not know what was in the distributed concoction.

Unless there is some actionable intelligence that we mere subjects are not privy to, there hasn't been too many Al Qaeda plots intending to disseminate poisoned lemonade through speakeasies operated by juvenile revolutionary jihadists. And even if one stretches back to the old concerns about Halloween delectables being laced with razor blades and the like, most of those accounts were blown all out of proportion by ministers attempting to frighten parents into keeping their children locked inside on that particular autumnal evening.

The next lesson learned is that certain excuses can be invoked in order to perhaps sway popular and bureaucratic opinion as to why the children in question should be allowed to flout the disputed law or regulation. It seems some reasons are some how more noble than others.

For example, in the instance of the youngsters threatened outside the golf course in suburban Maryland, the response in the press was that these youngsters were trying to raise money for charity. But what if the funds were not being raised for that purpose?

Is there something inherently wrong about keeping money for yourself? In exposing the false altruism scandal and other related efforts to squash individuality, Ayn Rand asked what is so bad about individuals attempting to provide for themselves.

On social networks, posters commenting on the issue have gone so far as to remark how dare the media even report on these cases since the accounts cast law enforcement in a negative light because the law must be enforced at all costs because the law is the law. Though American police departments and agencies have not yet deteriorated to the particular level about to be mentioned, it must be pointed out that the Gestapo and the KGB enforced what was considered law in their respective regimes as well.

So-called "conservatives" seem to have no problem whatsoever directing criticism at any assortment of other government agencies. So are they so dimwitted as to lose sight of the higher goal of human liberty when they are distracted by a shiny badge?

Just because a government has enacted a law regarding something, does that mean the temporal statute contramanding the laws of God must be obeyed in all instances? If so, does that mean the family of Corrie Ten Boom got what they deserved? After all, the law is the law.

Some might recoil at the idea of comparing the closing of a bootleg lemonade distillery with some of the greatest crimes in human history as one sheol of a conceptual leap. However, where do you think the framework is laid to get a people once marked by the common sense that flows from natural law to commit deeds that would only be approved by the most warped of consciences?

For, if a people lack the courage to stand for the right of a child to have a lemonade stand, do you think they will muster the courage to speak out regarding more profound incidents when those in power start aiming guns at heads in order to implement their transformative agendas?

By Frederick Meekins

by David Lawrence

Obama wowed the bathetic, emotionally charged, simplistic  audience in Connecticut when he tried to save gun control legislation, “Now’s the time to get engaged.  Now’s the time to get involved.  Now’s the time to push back on fear and frustration and misinformation.”  

 

The arrogant narcissistic tone of his gun control speech applies to all his other grandiose plans.  Once again Obama is outlining his bad qualities and accusing others of having them.  He blames others for “fear and frustration and misinformation” while he has pandered fear about the sequestration and frustrated the middle class with incipient inflation and lack of jobs.

 

He has told the people that Obamacare would be cheaper, that we could all keep our original policies and that seniors would have more opportunities rather than limited coverage and death panels.

 

Obama looks in the mirror at his bad qualities and turns it around and reflects his own negativity back on the Republicans. 

 

Obama wanted a good thing—health care for everyone.  Instead he ruined it by being overly ambitious.  There won’t be enough doctors for the new patients and our country will go bankrupt from the additional layers of bureaucratic administration.

 

Guns or health care, Obama lies about the possible results and pretends he could do more than he could do.  He is a phony whether he is refusing to drill for oil, holding up the Keystone XL Pipeline, limiting fracking,  giving out free condoms, refusing to vote against infanticide or backing contradictory gay marriage. 

 

Obama is engaged in concepts that are too large for his sophomoric, jump-to-conclusions mind.  He wants to change everything because he doesn’t know how to modify the adjustable. His idea of baby steps is a leap off the Grand Canyon.

 

He implements the impossible instead of the probable.  He has the rigidity of an ideologue and the opinionated simplicity of Mr. Potato Head. 

Arlington's Million Dollar Bus Stop

Ever wondered what a bus stop that cost a million dollars to build would look like? Now you can see one for yourself on the Columbia Pike in Arlington. 

"Are you kidding? That's crazy!" said a Metrobus rider. "That's a hell of a lot of money for a bus stop." 

WUSA9 spent two hours on Tuesday trying to find someone who thought it was worth it. Instead, all they found were people who couldn't get past the price tag.

The "super stop" opened just last week, and the county already has plans to build 23 more along the Columbia Pike. 

"Right now I can feel the wind and rain," said one rider. "The older bus stop was must better."

Read the full article at WUSA9 and watch the video where the government officials defend the bus stop and its features like "heated floors."

Liberty University allows gun owners with concealed weapons permits to carry on campus and inside buildings

GirlsJustWannaHaveGuns.com
by Amanda Horne

Currently, I am a law student at Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg Virginia. On April 1^st 2013, Liberty University took a bold and courageous step announcing their new policy to allow all students with valid state and university concealed weapons permits to carry on campus, even inside buildings. Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., Law School Dean Matthew Staver, and the board of trustees are visionaries who believe in freedom, the Second Amendment, and the right of individuals to protect themselves. The leaders of Liberty University did not cave to the pressure of the left or succumb to the media’s frenzy over recent events, and instead stepped up to provide a realistic and effective policy that will prevent a Virginia Tech style shooting on their campus. Liberty University has put the deranged gunmen of the world on notice. Liberty University will not be an easy target for you. God forbid, but if an incident ever were to occur on our campus, rest assured we will fight and we will protect ourselves. I am very proud to share this news, and very proud of Liberty University’s leaders for taking this principled position.  Liberty is a shining example to all other colleges and universities around the country.
I urge you, do not let them talk you into trying to protect yourself with a rape whistle, a call box, security guards, text messages, or even law enforcement to ensure you are safe on campus.

Read the rest of the article at GirlsJustWannaHaveGuns.com

Evidence the government may be deliberately creating a shortage of ammunition

Guest post from a friend who is afraid to use his real name for fear of retaliation

First, private citizens know that when federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and even the Social Security Administration buy huge quantities of hollow-point bullets, they are for domestic use on Americans. Hollow-points are forbidden by the Geneva Accords for use by the U.S. Armed Forces. 

Second, hollow-points are much more expensive than regular full metal jacket rounds so the claim that government agencies are using them "for gun range practice" are ludicrous. Even the government would not waste hollow-points and would purchase FMJs for the range. 

Third, Americans are stockpiling bullets because they can logically analyze the above two points to see why they are, most likely, to be on the receiving end of the FMJs. 

Fourth, I believe that the government has created an ammo shortage in order to limit the ammo held by the public. A retired police officer acquaintance of a good, personal friend of mine inquired with the four of five ammo manufacturers in the U.S. Four of them are running their machinery 365/24/7 to sell their full capacity to the federal government. The one other factory sells most to the feds, the rest to state and local law enforcement, and only a smidgen to private resellers. What this means is that the federal government is doing is using its ability to print money to buy the full production of manufacturers in order to deny ammo to the public. 

I am convinced that liberal billionaires like George Soros who understand the markets figured how to create a scarcity, make ammo into a luxury good, and essentially disarm America. You cannot buy 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, .223, .308 or even .22 LR at any gun store or even a Walmart in Arizona nowadays. Even gun owners who have been shooting for decades no longer go out on the weekends to shoot either because they do not have ammo or they do not want to deplete the ammo they do have. 

Woodsy On The Rampage: The Ecology Of Radical Environmentalism

In this era of hyperterrorism where every Tom, Dick, and Abdul with a grudge against society because of a rotten childhood blows up a bus or shoots up a post office, many are not too concerned about the activities of other outcasts striving to save the spotted owl or kangaroo rat with methods outside accepted political procedure since the most violent terrorists create the more pressing security concerns. However, simply because radical environmentalists aren’t known for eliminating their opposition with explosives, that does not mean that this movement challenging many of the presuppositions of modern technocratic society is not worthy of our attention.

The radical environmental movement began in opposition to the growing establishmentarian attitude of mainstream environmental groups such as the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, the Defenders of Wildlife, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Parks & Conservation Association, and the Environmental Policy Institute who are collectively referred to as “the Group of Ten (Scarce, 16). These organizations take a relatively pragmatic stand towards the preservation of the nation’s environmental treasures. For example, some of these mainstream groups agreed to let the government construct Glenn Canyon Dam in Arizona, and in other instances, these groups have been modest in the amount they demand be set aside for preservation.

This sense of compromise with government authorities in order to preserve at least a modicum of the nation’s natural resources has created a rift of ambiguity between the mainstream and the more radical environmentalist groups. On the one hand, radical environmentalists oppose compromise in the name of the environment on philosophical grounds. However, their own unreasonable demands are also part of an orchestrated strategy designed to make public officials more cooperative with the demands made by groups like the Sierra Club whose demands look reasonable in comparison to the ultimatums made by the radicals.

However, the radical environmental movement is more than a marketing ploy designed to win demands from government officials. It is also a school of thought drawing inspiration from various philosophical sources. One of the main philosophical schools that radical environmentalists draw upon is known as "Deep Ecology". According to this set of ideas, the conservation policies pursued by more mainstream environmental groups are incorrect because man is still used as the primary measure of all things, at least when it comes to environmental protection (Manes, 56). To the Deep Ecologist, every natural thing is on equal footing. Human beings are no better than moss or a pine cone.

Any assertion to the contrary is labeled anthropocentrism, which is an offense as allegedly as vile as racism. While this philosophy may make one feel neighborly towards the chipmunks down at the park, this way of thinking is fraught with a number of dangers. For example, it was asserted in one media account of a couple attacked by a rabid cougar, it was commented that no one had the right to kill the beast even though one of the mauled individuals lost several fingers in the attack. Needless to say, the person making the comment had never faced similar circumstances.

Coupled with this bio or eco-centrism is a disdain for technological development. Following in the footsteps of Herbert Marcuse's One Dimensional Man, radical environmentalists believe that technology allows man to dominate nature (Manes, 26). As such, he is dehumanized by his own inventions as existence is reduced to production and consumption. Never mind the fact that it is modern technology that allows individuals feeling this way to have the leisure time to devise and disseminates these thoughts. If dependence on technology can be reversed, it is thought, man will be able to reestablish his proper place in the natural world.

However, there is more to this worldview than abstract thinking and philosophical posturing. Being a physically active lot as many of the movement's adherents are avid outdoorsmen, much of the movement's theoretical underpinnings are based upon action and deed.

The primary action oriented text inspiring radical environmentalism is The Monkeywrench Gang by Edward Abbey who considered himself a "literary bum" destined to stand against the technological and industrial forces simultaneously arrayed against human freedom and environmental preservation (Scarce, 240). The Monkeywrench Gang is a novel about a group of live-hard outdoorsmen who roam the countryside in an old van performing various acts of ecological sabotage such a burning billboards, driving bulldozers over cliffs, pulling up survey stakes, and yanking out railroad tracks. The sequel to The Monkeywrench Gang, written shortly before Abbey's death, is Hayduke Lives! in which the gang reunites for one more spate of neo-Luddite shenanigans.

While these works help define the action-oriented aspects of radical environmentalism in a highly entertaining format, they also expose the inconsistencies at the heart of the movement. For example, throughout The Monkeywrench Gang, the characters rail against highways while tossing empty beer cans on to the side of the road; and while claiming to be at one with nature, the characters long for the showers and coffee at the Holiday Inn (Scarce, 240).

Another book with widespread popularity among radical environmentalists is Ecodefense: A Handbook For The Militant Defense Of Earth. Ecodefense is a how to on radical environmentalist tactics. In a sense, it is comparable to The Anarchist's Cookbook as it elaborates how to perpetrate mayhem by decommissioning bulldozers, pulling up survey stakes, and spiking trees as well as other tactics designed to stop the hordes of civilization seeking to pillage the wilderness (Scarce, 74).

Written by Earth First! founder Dave Foreman, Ecodefense was an immediate success with it being read by young environmental radicals from around the world. The book became so influential that the supervisor of the Williamette National Forest in Oregon testified in a Congressional hearing that he would consider closing the area under his jurisdiction if the tactics described in the book were carried out within the forest's boundaries (Manes, 83). And on a lighter note, "Ecodefense" was published by a firm called "Nedd Ludd Books" named in honor of the 19th century worker who participated in a campaign to destroy various forms of factory machinery.

The group that probably first and foremost put the principles embodied by this ideology into practice was Earth First!. The exclamation point is part of the groups name and not a grammatical construct symbolizing this author’s enthusiasm for the organization

Earth First! was founded by an assortment of individuals coming from a variety of backgrounds. Dave Foreman, who would later go on to write the aforementioned “Ecodefense”, started off surprisingly as a Republican and member of the Young Americans For Freedom as a supporter of Barry Goldwater. Foreman joined the Marines, but eventually went AWOL. He worked for a time for the Wilderness Society, only to leave the group disenchanted with what he perceived as the organization's moderation. Howe Wolke, who was considered by some as somewhat more of a libertarian, was a forestry student, bouncer, and oilfield hand, came to Earth First! from Friends of the Earth where he worked as a field representative attending public meetings and handling press relations. He quit that organization because that organization cut his $75 per month salary (Manes, 66). Mike Roselle was a radical involved with Abbie Hoffman's and Jerry Rubin's Yippy counterculture organization who himself later left that group because of its perceived political opportunism in order to establish the "Zippies". Other founding members of Earth First! included Bart Kochler, a former Wyoming Wilderness Society staff member with a knack for political organization as well as song writing, and Ron Kezar, a former seasonal U.S. Park Service employee who was trained as a librarian and an expert on the history of American military strategy (Manes, 68).

Groups such as Earth First! believe that the earth will be saved via anarchy which will topple modern industrialized technocratic civilization. In such a context, anarchy is defined as, "...the maximum possible dispersal of power; political, economic...and military power. An anarchist society would consist of a voluntary association of self-reliant self-sustaining autonomous communities (Scarce, 88)."

However, within the ranks of Earth First! there was a rift just how much anti-Americanism that the notion entailed. One faction led by group founder Dave Foreman held that anarchy was merely a means to an end which was the preservation of the biosphere. As such, flag burnings, an act of defiance preferred by some in the group, was seen as uncalled for (Scarce, 88). The other side of the dispute was led by ecofeminists, who combined the struggle against environmental degradation with the struggle against the patriarchy, and a splinter group originally called "Stumps Suck" but which ultimately settled on the name "Live Wild Or Die". Both of these submovements used their Earth First! activism as a broader platform to attack the wider consumer culture (Manes, 103).

Though often classified as "soft-core terrorist groups" by the FBI, many of the deeds committed by these kinds of organizations often border more on the juvenile than on the outright dangerous though still unquestionably criminal. Since many of these groups claim to ascribe to a code of nonviolent ethics based upon their own interpretation of Gandhian principles, many of these groups have turned to alternative forms of political behavior.

For example, one group calling itself the Revolutionary Ecoterrorist Pie Brigade tossed pies at timber industry spokesman at a convention. Another group put cow patties atop a Forest Service office building’s air conditioners in Washington State’s Okanogan National Forest (Manes, 104). And yet a another Earth First! splinter group called the Gross Action Group staged an event referred to as a “puke in” at a Seattle shopping center in 1988 when the activists ingested a vomit-inducing drug in order to shock holiday shoppers into realizing the disgusting nature of American consumerism, no doubt prompting sales to temporarily dip at the food court (Scarce, 89).

Despite these shenanigans, not all forms of radical environmental activism can be dismissed as good natured frolicking in the North Woods. Some of the tactics are downright life threatening.

One of the most common and dangerous activities engaged in by radical environmentalist groups is tree spiking where nails are driven into trees often slated for sale from national forests into private hands. The point of such an exercise is to discourage timber companies from extracting the wood because of the damage the nails could do to expensive equipment and not the mention the employees who would most likely be injured by flying nails, shattered equipment, or both.

To justify these actions in light of their “nonviolent” ethics, tree spikers often inform forestry authorities of their activities prior to harvest in order to avoid human injury. A prominent tree spiking incident occurred in May 1987 when a mill worker was injured by a band saw shattered by a tampered tree. Timber authorities roundly condemned Earth First! who denied involvement. Surprisingly, the injured mill worker publicly stated his support for Earth’s First!’s goals, and in an even bigger twist of events, it was learned that Earth First! had not carried out this particular tree spiking as has been concluded earlier. The perpetrator was actually an irate libertarian worried that timber companies logging near his property would want his land next (Manes, 11).

Despite this record, fears on the part of law enforcement are not without justification. Dave Foreman, one of Earth First!’s founders, did say, “It’s time for a warrior society to rise out of the Earth and throw itself in front of the juggernaut of destruction, to be antibodies against the human pox that is ravaging this precious beautiful planet (Manes, 86)." Pretty strong words, especially considering the fact than many in the group, while pro-environment, aren’t necessarily vegetarian or against hunting, with human beings being just another string in nature’s web no more important or distinct from any other animal.

Radical environmentalists have proven that they themselves are not above the use of violence. For example, one group calling itself Direct Action blew up a British Columbia electrical substation in 1982. A radical Greenpeace splinter group calling itself the Sea Shepherds has no qualms about ramming what the organization considers pirate whaling ships on the high seas (Manes, 86). Other groups get a kick from setting bulldozers and related construction equipment on fire.

The future of radical environmentalism and its accompanying deeds of quasi-violence and para-terrorism are the subjects of intense debate. Analysts are divided over the issue.

One perspective concludes that the violence will only get worse. A 1990 report released by the Heritage Foundation titled "Eco-Terrorism: The Dangerous Fringes Of The Environmental Movement" argues that eventually innocent people will likely be hurt by the fanaticism of this ideology that prefers moss over man (Scarce, 265).

The other side of this debate contends that, if such violent actions were taken, they would be counter productive as many law abiding citizens view environmental issues as quality of life issues. For example, residents of both Pennsylvania and Virginia have at times thumbed their noses at assorted development projects that would impact the historical and cultural distinctiveness of geographical treasures such as Lancaster Dutch Country and George Washington's boyhood home. Only time will tell if the true goals of radical environmentalism are simply about raising public awareness or about tossing a wrench into the gears of the technological society they claim to loathe for the purposes of tearing it down.

by Frederick Meekins

Bibliography

Manes, Christopher. "Green Rage: Environmentalism & The Unmaking Of Civilization." Boston: Little, Brown & Company. 1990.

Scarce, Rik. "Eco-Warriors: Understanding The Radical Environmental Movement." Chicago: The Noble Press, Inc. 1990.

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At PolicyMic, we're convinced that news doesn't need to be sterile and politics don't need to be partisan. That's why we've created the first democratic online news platform to engage millenials in debates about real issues.

We are looking for remote writers who are passionate about the issues shaping the lives of young people and want to learn how to reach thousands of readers.  As a PolicyMic writer, you'll learn how to write for an online audience, how to make stories go viral, and how to be the top search result on Google, all while engaging in meaningful debate. 

To apply, please send an email to Michael McCutcheon (michael@policymic.com) explaining why you'd be a good fit, and that contains the following: 

1. Résumé
2. Writing sample that is ~500 words on a news event