Welcome to a special holiday edition of the weekend reading. I’m meeting up with some gents this morning to celebrate our 2nd amendment rights, so I’ll have to keep this brief.  There definitely are some things to edify you with and inform you of this morning, and I’ll begin with this…California Bill Would Ultimately Erase Religious Schools.  The freedoms we fought to protect two centuries ago are being taken away little by little. The left has surrendered their intellectual credibility to a group of sexual deviants who will stop at nothing until Christianity (their most virulent opposition) is stomped out and America looks like ancient Rome (and we know how that turned out, don’t we).

One of the hallmarks of the early Christian church and how they interacted with the Roman Empire was their adopting of children who were left out in the streets to be “exposed” to the elements. I guess you could say this was an early form of abortion. Christians took these children in, rescuing them and raising them as their own children.  I bring that up because one of the big stories of the week was a Supreme Court Ruling overturning rules in Texas that would make abortion clinics have to meet certain hospital like standards. From the story:

By a 5-3 vote, the justices rejected the state’s arguments that its 2013 law and follow-up regulations were needed to protect women’s health. The rules required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery.

It is now safe to say that the feminist left and those populating the ranks of the sexual revolution, no longer truly care for a woman’s health. Their motto is “safe, rare and legal”, but they only truly desire “legal.”  With the vocal celebration of this decision on the left, no longer is there any pretense that they care for the health of the mother. They simply want freedom to kill. Irony: the same people against the death penalty and the right to bear arms in protection of oneself, are for taking life before it is born, and killing when societal “value” has faded.

Sorry to be so negative to start out with, but we can’t turn a blind eye to the battle raging around us – especially on the weekend we’re celebrating our freedoms and the uniqueness of this country. Every country-loving Christian ought to be praying for the preservation of freedom this weekend – freedom and liberty of even those not born.  If you are wondering how one prays against the forces of evil and whether its even right to pray against anything, then check out an older post I had here on how Jim Hamilton thinks of these things. 

Wonder where the left wants to take us?  Look at this: Russia’s Proposed Law: No Evangelizing Outside of Church.  Freedom from religion in lieu of freedom of religion is not freedom at all, its tyranny at a government level, and its bondage of the soul at the individual level. 

Speaking of tyranny and tyrants, this was interesting: Money earned from US sales of “Mein Kampf” will now go to Holocaust survivors

And, in a similar topic area, I found this story FASCINATING! After Fleeing the Nazis, a Legacy That Won’t Run Dry: The frugal couple bumped into young Warren Buffett. Now they’ve left millions to Israeli water research.  You might need to have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal for that one though, which, by the way, is worth it.

Fascinating stats here: How Much Television Do You Actually Watch? Way Too Much!

A couple of Olympics stories for you…

First: Rio police protest lack of salaries, toilet paper (!!!)  From the story…

At the stations we don’t have paper or ink for the printers, there’s no one to come in to clean and some stations don’t have a water supply anymore so the toilets are not functioning

Second: When Rio fails, sister city shows sewage cleanup possible

Not to hound on the Olympics and the disaster its become, but when you boil all of this down to its root, I think you’ll find that corruption of justice and lack of human liberty is at the heart of the problem. When the government of a nation is corrupt, even the basic necessities of life for average people will suffer. The Olympics are just shining a light on this reality. Justice and liberty are key features of a successful economic society. Sure you can “manufacture” production and prosperity for a time, but eventually repression leads to revolution and reformation of government structures.  In America we are blessed that the separation of powers has hitherto checked absolute corruption of justice and economic freedom/entrepreneurship (another thing to celebrate this weekend).

Shifting topics…this post from David Mathis was powerful: Ask Your Child to Forgive You. From the beginning..

I will never forget my father asking for my forgiveness. Few moments, if any, were as arresting, as moving, and as unforgettable as when Pop admitted to me — at age five or seven or ten — that he had overreacted, and that he was sorry.

And…I didn’t even know there still was a campaign! Who knew?? Sanders national press secretary leaving campaign

On the presidential campaign front…this is going to be embarrassing: Author says Hillary Clinton is ‘two different people’

And then there was this gem from The Donald on the campaign trail:

Another sort of bizarre headline this week from CNN about how James Dobson is calling Donald Trump a “baby Christian” and asking for all Christians to pray for him to grow up into his new faith.  I’d love for Dobson to be right, but I think he’s off his proverbial rocker on this one. But one has to be careful judging this kind of thing – we are not to “judge” in the ultimate sense – that is God’s place alone. But we are called to discern, and what I can discern, Dobson is lacking in discernment.

On to other goodies…

This was pretty good stuff to think through: IS YOUR WORSHIP SERVICE UPSIDE DOWN?

And the Read Scripture people have a new video out – this time on the book of Esther (I like how they did this one).

Unfortunately that’s all I have time for this morning.  If you have time, you might consider checking out Al Mohler’s dissection of the Pope’s latest controversial comments and John Piper’s 7 lessons from Europe. 

Have a great weekend!

PJ