400-408 – Herb London, the president of the Hudson Institute (hudson.org) in New York and author of the new book America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion, on the new paganism – a form of extreme secularism that is both at war with the West and incapable of resisting radical Islam.
• Joseph Morrison Skelly (11/07/08) Radical Secularism, Militant Islamism: The contemporary secular campaign being waged against Judeo-Christian civilization. Some key paragraphs:
"In particular, I hope to demonstrate," he writes, "that our culture's increasing commitment to the tenets of radical secularism undermines our resolve to oppose a fanatical foe on the world stage." As he argues elsewhere, "[t]he question is whether radical secularism offers a sufficiently robust alternative to religion — robust enough, that is, to nurture our allegiance to the core values of Western civilization at a time when those values are under siege not only from the external threat of radical Islam, but also from the internal threats of spiritual fecklessness and moral anemia." No, it does not, is his sobering reply, which makes his latest publication a must read.
London identifies five developments in our time that have paved the way for the ascendancy of radical secularism. They include the rise of multiculturalism; the decay of traditional religion; the degeneration of the liberal virtue of tolerance into an unwillingness to discriminate (relativism, in other words); transnationalism, which is "the effort to reduce or eliminate the national heritage of European states through continental harmonization" — and a phenomenon creeping into American life; and "a loss of existential confidence that is at the same time a failure of nerve."
[My summary: Multiculturalism, Secularism, Relativism, Transnationalism, Passivism]
Radical secularists seek to banish religion entirely from the public square. But what do they believe in private? In an important chapter London delineates their six central principles, what he calls the "articles of a possible secularist catechism." Listen closely, and we can hear several of them reverberate in this presidential election season. The first doctrine is that "[t]ruth is subjective, relative, or contextual." Next is the assertion that [r]ationality can solve moral and ontological questions about man's nature," followed closely by the notion that a "rational government is freed from the limits traditionally imposed on its purview through the attainment of technical knowledge. Man's eternal problems, including the plight of the poor, can be solved through a welfare state based on the redistribution of wealth." The fourth article of faith holds that "[s]ince we are all children of the globe, subject to the same rationality, national loyalty and patriotism are dangerous anachronisms." The fifth asserts that the "most important goal one can seek is self-transformation, what the psychologist Abraham Maslow called 'self-actualization." The last dogma stipulates that "[d]iscrimination is the great bugbear of social intercourse."
[My summary: "Truth is subjective" (relativism), "the rational trumps the moral" (scientism), "the rational state is the welfare state" (socialism), "patriotic nationalism is dangerous" (transnationalism), and "in the name of tolerance, we must be intolerant of those who are intolerant"]
413-423 – Herb London
428-437 – • Melissa Etheridge (12/22/08) The Choice Is Ours Now.
443-452 – What do you think of Melissa Etheridge's letter?
458-508 – What do you think of Rick Warren doing Barack Obama's inauguration?
• Debra J. Saunders (12/23/08) Free the Saddleback One.
512-523 – What do you think of Rick Warren doing Barack Obama's inauguration?
• E. J. Dionne (12/23/08) Will the Warren Risk Be Worth It?
• DeWayne Wickham (12/23/08) Warren could be Obama's Booker T. Washington.
524 – [2:00] Don Rohde (818) 262-2092, sales manager at Galpin Ford for the past 36 years. Galpin has been family-owned and operated for the past 59 years, with 90% of their business either repeat or referral. Galpin has been #1 volume Ford dealer in the world for the past 18 consecutive years. Galpin offers Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Honda, Mazda, Saturn, Volvo, Jaguar, and Aston Martin. Located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley at Roscoe and the 405.
528-538 – • AP (12/23/08) Obama chooses Lincoln's Bible for inauguration.
• Reuters (12/23/08) Pope Benedict criticizes homosexual behavior.
544-554 – What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?
555 – [1:30] "Your Independent, Unbiased, Advisors: The Money Guys" Robert Micone/Bill O'Connor at Applied Financial, 866-SEEK-COUNSEL, and online at appliedfinancialplanning.com.
558-608 – What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?
612-623 – What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?
628-638 – What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?
644-655 – What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?
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