Operation Marriage Chaos: Woman "Married" to Berlin Wall 29 Years

By Rick Pearcey

A friend alerts us to a woman clearly ahead of her time.

According to the Telegraph, a Mrs. Berliner-Mauer, of Sweden, recently revealed that she "tied the knot" with the famous wall while visiting Berlin in 1979. The blissful creature-to-creature ceremony was conducted "before a handful of guests."

Clearly biased in its reporting, however, the Telegraph castigates the woman as having a "bizarre fetish for inanimate objects." Objectum-Sexuality, to be regressively clinical.

But please: Bizarre?

What's truly bizarre is the newspaper's own embrace of Objectosexophobia. Shame! Shame on all objectosexophobists!

No doubt "wall friendly" New York and California stand ready to grant Frau Berlin Wall renewed status as "member in good standing" of the human race (with the entire U.S. to follow in good order, out of compassionate legal necessity).

And for all you haters out there, just remember this: Love without limits, Matthew 7, diversity is our strength.

Who but the worst of brutes would deny any creature, human, animal, plant, or wall the right to marry, to commune, to couple, to partner, to triangulate?

Operation Marriage Chaos begins.

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Pearcey Rocks Darwin's Boat

By Rick Pearcey

Nancy affirms free inquiry, critical thinking, and challenges to dogmatic instruction in Darwin, as noted in this mag's coverage of "Beyond Expelled."

See Also
Christianity Is a Science-Starter, Not a Science-Stopper
"Beyond Expelled" Upset in Florida
"Beyond Expelled" -- An Evening With Author-Speaker Nancy Pearcey

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Rolled Model: Tennis Pro Harkleroad "Proud of My Body"

By Rick Pearcey

It's skin-baiting 101 all over again.

This time a 23-year-old female, Ashley Harkleroad, ranked 61 in the world in women's professional tennis but not exactly a house-hold name, will bare all in an upcoming sleaze mag.

Here's the shop-worn, braindead rationale: "I'm proud of my body."

Utter nonsense.

Does "proud" entail public display?

No.

For example, the human heart is a beautiful thing, but if a pretty girl pulls her heart out and shows it to a nice photographer, she's dead.

Even if her mom approves. Or Leno. Or Oprah.

Did you know that many beautiful things, many wonderful things of which one holds in high esteem, can be kept private -- and rightfully, fulfillingly so?

A confidence among best-friends. A loving glance between husband and wife. A good work done in secret so that PR machines and legacy-building do not take over to twist, finesse, and deceive.

Human creativity, too. As Camus said, "There is no true creation without secrecy."

Many, many private things of which we may all be proud and are quite beautiful are nevertheless destroyed when removed from their proper context.

Not just human hearts are destroyed. But we also lose that hidden place, shaped by the Creator, that all humans need if we are to unfold who we are as persons.

But the huckster comes and says, "Be proud. Show me everything!" Cha-ching!

Next!

An individual with no sense of privacy is functionally a nonperson. And that hurts because we are persons -- more than meat plus instincts -- and to destroy all boundaries, all limits, is to attack the center of who we are.

You can be No. 1 in the world and utterly dead inside. You died on the way to the top.

The best things in life aren't just free, they're hidden in secret places where respect is earned, not sold, revealed to the few, not to the many.

* See Also
Dungeon Incest Story Shocks
Rupert Murdoch: Satan or Savior?
Warren, Murdoch, Porn, and WND
Liberal Pundit: Child Porn Should Be Permitted

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Habitat for Inhumanity

By Rick Pearcey

This story says so much: Christian Ministry "Habitat for Humanity" Agrees to Work With Abortion Giant Planned Parenthood." The report begins:

Habitat for Humanity has verbally agreed to an arrangement that would help Planned Parenthood open an abortion facility in Sarasota, Florida. The agreement, which reportedly has not been finalized, would fulfill a city requirement that would allow Planned Parenthood to acquire the occupancy permit it needs to open.

“According to zoning regulations, Planned Parenthood cannot build their abortion facility in the planned location without the presence of a multifamily liner building,” said Jim Sedlak, vice-president of American Life League. “Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood found a creative solution to its problem and is using Habitat for Humanity to achieve its objective. Planned Parenthood plans to sell land to Habitat for $10 so it can meet city requirements.”

The Sarasota City Commission approved a plan on May 5, based on the agreement with Habitat that would allow Planned Parenthood to open their facility. A letter that Planned Parenthood filed with the city before the meeting said, "We are excited to have Habitat be a part of the Planned Parenthood team."

“Habitat for Humanity, which claims to be a Christian ministry, says that this was only a real estate transaction,” said Sedlak. “However, Planned Parenthood could not open its abortion facility without Habitat’s help." . . .

An erstwhile supporter of Habitat explains his disillusionment in "Why I Can No Longer Support Habitat for Humanity."

Another observer is subtle: "Talk about dealing with the devil."

A 4:09 p.m. search of the Habitat website yields no results for "Planned Parenthood." One wonders -- Where is the press release announcing this intriguing development, this brave partnership, this wondrous event?

While Habitat falls silent, Planned Parenthood unashamedly leads the way forward: The abortion industry giant reportedly is "excited to have Habitat be a part of the Planned Parenthood team."

But enabling abortion -- what journalist and author Peter Hitchens (atheist Christopher's brother) just two days ago calls a "massacre to suit the selfish" -- hardly seems consistent with the humane thought and practice that accompanies the proper application of Christian thoughtforms across the whole of life.

One might also ask, paraphrasing, What does it profit an organization, a volunteer, a "Christian," a "ministry" to build houses for the whole world, but lose its own soul?

Then again, if church-state separationists are correct, transactions such as real estate deals and other acts in the public sphere have nothing to do with the Gospel in the first place. For the secularist and bifurcated "believer," holiness and its attendant humanity stop at the church door.

For an alternative to the problem of an inhumane secularism and its echo in a fragmented spirituality alienated from the concreteness and wholeness of life, consider this.

* Update
Here are the Sarasota City Commission minutes, May 5, 2008. See page 10, item 12. ht: Kevin Bussey

* See Also
Abortofascism and Free-Market Homicide
Fascism Is Back
Square Circle Watch: Pro-Life Christians for Obama?

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Hannitizing the GOP: Sean's Top 10 Steps to Victory

By Rick Pearcey

Sean Hannity offers the GOP something it lacks: A unified platform for victory in 2008.

Back-sliding Republicans co-opted by the ways of Washington would do well to consider adopting something like this 10-point plan.

But for a strategic solution to what ails the GOP, a 12-step program may be in order.

Thus, to Sean's Top 10, consider adding these 2:

1. Attention to the issues of life, family, and marriage, so that human beings from biological conception onward and their foundational, God-given social institutions are afforded a dignity and respect consonant with science and with inalienable rights endowed upon each individual by the Creator.

2. Renewed commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the Founding worldview, centered on that very Creator affirmed in the Declaration of Independence and set forth in the verifiable data of the Biblical information.

Note: The dream of freedom, shining cities on a hill, and last best hopes for mankind is not just for Republicans or Americans. It is for all people and all times.

America didn't make it; it made America. And it can make any nation, any people, exceptional. American exceptionalism is not exceptionally American.

And America at her best is great insofar as she realizes, and insofar as individual Americans act upon, that dream as an information-rich vision of a liberated humane existence, a vision that springs forth from the Creator, from the mind of God.

To the degree that Ronald Reagan understood and articulated this, to that degree he inspired.

Question: Do Republicans "get it"? Not yet, if you go by GOP House Leader John Boehner's interview with Hannity on radio yesterday.

Here's the interview, from YouTube. Boehner's webpage excerpts are here.

Boehner appears a likeable fellow, but his performance reminds one of an actor sleep-walking through a role. His message is uninspiring, to say the least.

Prediction: If present trends continue, the GOP will be thumped mightily in the House and Senate. Any "Conservatism" worth advancing will remain in exile and fighting a losing battle until it finds its way home via points one and two above. "Conservatism" may be too tame a word for what's needed.

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

McDonald's "Clarifies" Homosexualist Support

By Rick Pearcey

McDonald's, the fast-food eatery formerly known as a family restaurant, is still trying to "distort their support for the homosexual agenda," according to this Action Alert from the American Family Association.

Here's a McDonald's commercial in proud support of the homosexualist agenda.

See also:
* No McDonald's Today
* Reader Responds to "No McDonald's Today"
* National Radio: Rick Pearcey Discusses McDonald's Homosexual Alliance
* Court Watch: Does McDonald's Support This Lesbian Attack on Family?

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Square Circle Watch: Pro-Life Christians for Obama?

By Rick Pearcey

Talk show host Janet Folger of Faith2Action challenges Christians to line up their political priorities with information from the Creator.

On the question of human dignity and the sanctity of life, for example, Folger argues over at WorldNetDaily against the notion that one can be an evangelical and yet also vote, with consistency, for Barack Obama. CNSNews Editor in Chief Terry Jeffrey argues Obama is the "most pro-abortion candidate ever."

To quote Folger:

We need to prioritize when it comes to our policies and our politics. Take a bunch of "evangelical Christians" who, according to Sunday's Seattle Times, claim to be pro-life Christians and for Obama. No matter how slick the slogans or how "cool" the candidate, you can't be both.

Look, to be a Christian means you have to follow Christ. What did Christ say? "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." And what were some of those commandments? God prioritized them for us, and "Thou shalt not kill" made the top 10. It wasn't "change" or "diversity" or "tolerance" or "government programs" that made the list; it was the protection of human life.

Folger concludes:

We need to prioritize our policies and our politics before the house burns down or we face our deathbeds. The house may not be burning down just yet, but in September 2001, there were some buildings that did. We may not be on our deathbed, but there are 4,000 American children today who are – because of the policies and the deadly philosophy of Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. We can't be a pro-life Christian and support either one.

To those who are confused about the candidates and the culture, I have one word for you: prioritize.

Is there a consistent case rooted in Biblical information and principle that would allow pro-life Christians to vote this year for a pro-abortion candidate such as Obama or Clinton?

Are you a pro-life Christian planning on voting for Obama or Hillary? Why? How would you answer Folger?

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Abortofascism and Free-Market Homicide

By Rick Pearcey

In a column titled "Atheism and Child Murder," Dinesh D'Souza comments on his recent debate with Princeton ethicist and atheist Peter Singer:

Some of Singer's critics call him a Nazi and compare his proposals to Hitler's schemes for eliminating the unwanted, the unfit and the disabled. But as I note in the debate, Singer is no Hitler. He doesn't want state-sponsored killings. Rather, he wants the decision to kill to be made by you and me. Instead of government-conducted genocide, Singer favors free-market homicide.

Singer as an individual may or may not approve "state-sponsored killings," but his worldview nevertheless demands obedience. This is what worldviews qua worldviews do as presumed guides to living in the real world.

What counts here, in Singer's case, are not the desires of a particular professor, but rather the imperative mobilized by atheistic presuppositions that give rise to a materialistic and inhumane philosophy of life.

People desire many things, but the actual direction of their lives and of their cultures is set in many ways by directives consistent with their philosophy of life, their worldview.

A denial of the dignity of Man and the sacredness of the individual pushes people downstream into currents of inhumanity that allow no adequate ethical opposition to radical dehumanization, up to and including concentration camps and abortion chambers.

Even "nice" people, regular folk, can be caught up in this dynamic if they allow others to do their thinking and evaluating for them.

You can be a materialist even if you're a hippie and have only one quarter in your pocket (as Francis Schaeffer observed on occasion). In similar fashion, you can be a fascist and have only one baby, one person, one slave, one Jew in your power, your pocket, at your mercy, in your womb, subject to your autonomous choice.

State machinery may or may not be involved in Singer's current thinking or at a particular moment in history. But this doesn't get us out of the woods.

For if the naked secular state is the de facto ultimate political power (because God does not exist, and the impersonal cosmos is indifferent), then even the putatively "empowered" individual really functions more as something akin to an NGE (nongovernmental entity), enacting that which the state allows and the Darwinian struggle for existence compels, excuses, and forgives.

This is a delegated fascism -- from the secular state to the secularized individual and his or her own personal will-to-power. "Freedom" and "empowerment" become PR symbols to help grown-ups feel better about imposing their values on pre- and post-natal children. This scheme works best if the grown-ups remain unaware of their subservience to the state establishment.

It is important to not be confused or distracted by the struggle between the fascism of the one (naked, personal choice and the individual will-to-power) and the fascism of the many (naked, political choice and the raw communal will-to-power).

One need not reduce Singer to Hitler to recognize Naziesque applications that emerge naturally and logically from an inhumane, Singeresque worldview. We are condemned to repeat the past if we ignore its dangerous presuppositions.

Related
* Dawkins: Nazi Eugenics "May Not Be Bad"?, by Rick Pearcey
* Fascism Is Back, by Rick Pearcey

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

"Beyond Expelled" Upset in Florida

By Rick Pearcey

Amid pounding and shouting over at a blog titled "Florida Citizens for Science," one might think that Fort Walton Beach and perhaps Western Civilization may never be quite the same again after Nancy Pearcey shows up and gives a talk on the topic of "Beyond Expelled" this week.

This group, this blog, announces itself dedicated to the defense and promotion of "sound science in Florida." Yet the tone of that site seems inconsistent with such a laudable goal.

In its aggressiveness and bluster, one detects a certain lack of confidence, defensiveness, and lack of encouragement to let people think things through for themselves. A bit of "sales resistance," and perhaps ear plugs, seems in order. (For more on "sales resistance," etc., see the conclusion of "Christmas Spirit in the Dirt.")

Truly free thinkers, let us also say, welcome the kind of reasonable dialogue that Nancy's lectures invariably exhibit and invite. In many ways, this humane approach goes back to her own agnosticism and willingness to consider basic questions from all angles.

Throw in a little respect for the individual, as well as critical distance vis-a-vis contemporary fantacisms and accepted orthodoxies, and you've got the makings of a terrific evening.

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

"Beyond Expelled" -- An Evening With Author-Speaker Nancy Pearcey

By Rick Pearcey

Nancy Pearcey will be in the Fort Walton Beach, Fla., area May 8, 2008, to speak on the topic "Beyond Expelled."

Expelled is the excellent, controversial film starring Ben Stein.

John Derbyshire scorched the film over at National Review.

David Berlinski suggests Mr. Derbyshire might have been well-served to see the film first, and ask questions later (in fairness, a lesson, sadly, some "worldview" Christian bigshots might consider regarding books and film in general).

Nancy will be speaking at the Mattie Kelly Fine & Performance Arts Center of Okaloosa-Walton College in Niceville.

Daily News of northwest Florida published yesterday a story about Nancy's upcoming lecture.

Here's a WFTW radio interview.

Nancy will speak at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information see the Beyond Expelled webpage of Westminster Presbyterian Church, located in Fort Walton Beach.

Related
* Christianity Is a Science-Starter, Not a Science-Stopper, by Nancy Pearcey

* Why Intelligent Design Will Win: 5 Reasons to Keep an Open, Educated Mind, by Nancy Pearcey

* Darwin Meltdown Reaches England, by Rick Pearcey

* Secularism Takes Hit at British Airways, by Rick Pearcey

* I'll Take Sartre, by Rick Pearcey

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).