Monday, June 30, 2008

White Pastor Acknowledges "Racism"

By Rick Pearcey

A high-test coffee-drinking pastor friend of mine finally acknowledges he's a "racist" and maybe even a Nazi. Apparently it all hinges on whether you're willing to vote for a certain candidate for president.

Thus spake Pastor Curt:

I heard it yet again this morning from a Barack Obama supporter. He said (on the radio), “I am suspicious of anyone who won’t vote for Barack Obama. He is at best a racist and at worst a Nazi.” So there you have it. I’m a racist (or Nazi). I guess there is no consideration given for viewing candidates on their records and beliefs. Barack Obama is a left-wing liberal. I’m a conservative -- too conservative for the Republican Party. I wouldn’t vote for Barack Obama if he was green, white, yellow or a combination thereof. To call me a racist is pretty stupid. Give me a break -- I grew up in South Providence!
Once upon a time in America it was OK to think before you voted. Once upon a time there was a black guy named King who talked about evaluating people on the basis of character, not skin color. But on this new line of thinking perhaps Herr King was a closet Nazi.

Apparently, in some minds, those regressive days are over. All you need now is a color chart and progressive people to point you in the racially correct direction.

As for King, Curt, and me, we're all racists. Maybe even Nazis. Heil Skin Color!

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

What Is a Plagiarist?

By Rick Pearcey

What is a plagiarist?

"First-class intellectual fraud" is how one newspaper describes a now-fired professor.

It seems rather odd, but there really are people who have no compunction about allowing their names to be slapped onto work done by others.

Sometimes it seems the bigger the name, the easier the slap.

It seems rather odd, but there really are people who knowingly and repeatedly allow themselves to be praised for work they did not do. And not just professors at universities.

"I love your commentary!"

"What a magnificent book on Christian worldview!"

"God has really used it."

"Thank you," says the ever-so-humble con artist.

But why the counterfeits? Perhaps money is to be made, reputations to be shaped, images to be projected, downfalls to be rehabilitated, legacies to protected, embarrassment to be covered.

But we can do better. Most people know this intuitively. It's the way we teach our kids: "Honesty is the best policy" and "tell the truth, even if it hurts you."

Some people are on a learning curve. Many simply haven't yet seen through illusion to the darkness and complicity. In certain respects, we've all been there. Sometimes we are not able to see the darkness until we are so far in that it seems almost impossible to escape.

What counts is what we do when we discover the emperor is rather naked indeed. Some turn around and move toward the light. Others move deeper into darkness. This can be a process that takes a moment -- or weeks, months, and years. By it, cultures are won or lost, lives lived fully or in vain.

When you move into the light, you get Reformation and renewal and humanity. When you persist in enablement, you get the status quo, enslaving praise, and mission failure.

Thus we witness intellectually and spiritually fraudulent books, articles, columns, film reviews, book reviews, blogs, blurbs, letters, and sermons.

Colluding in this con are the ghostwriters, who are paid to allow someone else to be credited with work that is not the putative "author's." Allowing someone to take your work and pretend it is theirs is just as much a form of plagiarism as when the other person steals it outright.

What the ghostwriter does is to join the fake "author" in defrauding the public. Both are stealing from the storehouse of the public trust. A contract simply legalizes the immorality and digs the hole of corruption that much deeper.

Thereby millions of unsuspecting people are involved in this deception. Publishers thereby sell more books, organizations thereby raise more funds. With particular callousness, an "author" might even boast of how royalties are donated to this or that ministry.

Should we ever be too important, too "Big," or too busy to tell the truth? Of course not.

We can do better. We can encourage authenticity in our own lives and elevate the individual and his creative gift instead of smashing him or her.

This is part of the high calling of "loving thy neighbor," of practising the truth that there are "no little people" and of doing "the Lord's work the Lord's way," as Francis Schaeffer so often emphasized.

It can be done with one word, a single phone call can get the ball rolling. Mere seconds can help change the culture and reform manners.

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

Monday, June 23, 2008

"Home" Abortion and the Death of Privacy

By Rick Pearcey

A fact of life today is that the womb is not a safe space for pre-born humanity. It's clearly more dangerous there than in the less-efficient concentration camps that exemplify the recent Dark Ages of liberated, enlightened, post-Christian Europe.

The lack of privacy and protection in that erstwhile sanctified place located inside the body of a mother has been extended to "clinics" and hospitals. Aborcentration camps are well-neigh a global franchise.

Inhumane worldviews do not sleep or rest. They continue to unfold and impose their consequences, even if PR talking points distract and bait the hook with language of high self-esteem.

That, plus the patina of corporate sponsorship, may do the trick. As a test case, you might try knocking on the door of McDonald's, once known as a family-friendly restaurant.

"Safe" and "legal" choices abort the lives of millions red and yellow, black and white. Females are empowered by blood, their babies condemned to their freedom.

Now come reports that women are being offered "home" abortions. Humanistic regress thereby advances the concept of home invasions to new levels in a post-humane culture.

The Hollywood celebrities and paparazzi are right: Privacy is dead.

Related
* Habitat for Inhumanity
* Square Circle Watch: Pro-Life Christians for Obama?
* Abortofascism and Free-Market Homicide
* If Diversity Is King

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

Friday, June 20, 2008

Race Horse Named "Total Truth"

By Rick Pearcey

The fun news is there's a race horse named "Total Truth." Someone clearly has stumbled into brilliance.

Well, almost.

Because said horse was discovered to have transgressed the legal limit for steroids and therefore scratched from a $500,000-purse race.

The above-linked June 16 news report makes no mention of home runs, triples, etc.

But there is this: Not long ago, in 2006, Total Truth, "with Ron Pierce at the controls," won a "thrilling victory at the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup."

Moral of story: Owners with a horse named "Total Truth" have big horseshoes to fill.

Please mind your race manners. Then run like crazy.

For the inside book on Total Truth, go here.

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

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Misplaced "Faith" Kills

By Rick Pearcey

In what appears to have been an avoidable tragedy, "Teen From Faith-Healing Family Refuses Treatment, Dies," according to AP.

In the midst of such a heartbreak, it must be said, with compassion: This outcome was avoidable not just medically, but also in terms of "faith."

For nothing in the information we have from the Creator suggests that living in community with him and each other requires living in alienation from medicine.

Just as the Biblical worldview is a science-starter and not a science-stopper, even so its high view of creation, the natural order of things, and then specifically of individual bodily existence, makes it a medical-science-affirmer and not a medical-science-denier.

Historically, this represents positive change. "Prior to Christianity," a book reviewer writes, "the Greeks and Romans had little or no interest in the poor, the sick and the dying." But a new and improved attitude was introduced into the stream of western culture when "the early Christians, following the example of their master, ministered to the needs of the whole person."

Reactionary attacks on Christians inhibited this progressive and humane effort. "During the first three centuries of the church they could only care for the sick where they found them, as believers were then a persecuted people. Once the persecutions subsided, however, the institutionalisation of health care began in earnest."

Nevertheless, the Biblical data consistently set forth a high view of the whole person and a revolt against the "plague," as it were. So while we are deeply thankful, we are not surprised by the emergence of a more humane approach in the care of people, such as when the "first ecumenical council at Nicea in 325 directed bishops to establish hospices in every city that had a cathedral."

Likewise fitting is that we see the construction of the "first hospital" in Caesarea, built in 369 "by St. Basil." With more to come: "By the Middle Ages, hospitals covered all of Europe and even beyond. In fact, 'Christian hospitals were the world’s first voluntary charitable institutions.'"

"Faith" means trust. It is not an end in and of itself. The proper object of one's trust should be truth, lest we fall blindly into a ditch.

The truth is: Both prayer (asking God to intervene) and medicine (asking God's servants to intervene) operate in the same, unified created order, without tension, without contradiction. It's a wholistic, humane response to death, disease, and decay.

Dr. Luke the physician, author of the Gospel of Luke, would have pleaded to see and help cure this unfortunate teen. He would do his part in fighting the plague.

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

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Ghostwriter Causes Columnist to Resign

By Rick Pearcey

In an email titled "Ghostwriter Causes Newspaper Columnist to Resign," an alert reader sent us this amazing story of publishing malpractice:

Well-known San Antonio Express-News music writer and columnist Ramiro Burr, facing allegations that he hired a ghostwriter to produce more than 100 stories and columns since 2001, tendered his resignation Tuesday afternoon as the newspaper’s investigation into this and other violations of the newspaper’s ethics policies by Burr was drawing to a conclusion. Burr, 52, covered the local and international music scene for the past 25 years. He worked for the San Antonio Light from 1983 until the Light folded in 1993 and has been with the Express-News since. He is also a local correspondent for Billboard magazine and in 1999 wrote a book, the Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican Music.

“Ramiro caused the Express-News to unknowingly publish work under his name that was not, in fact, his own work,” said Robert Rivard, editor of the Express-News.

“It was the work of at least one other writer who did not receive credit and who we did not know about. Ramiro decided on his own to resign just as our investigation was concluding and we were preparing to take appropriate action. We have a zero-tolerance policy whenever someone on our staff presents work as their own that is not their own.” . . .

Simple honesty, not to mention respect for our readers, is one of the reasons The Pearcey Report and Pro-Existence are "Ghostwriting-Free Zones."

We do not knowingly publish or link to work in which the putative author has lied, cheated, or stolen to get his or her name on an article or book. Would that a similar principle affirming authorial integrity would apply to those (staff, free-lancers, "ministry partners," etc.) who enable this sort of regrettable, disrespectful, and regressive behavior.

And by the way, having a contract legalizing this unethical practice does not make it right. Rather, it just deepens the hypocrisy and furthers the corruption. Remember what your parents told you: Two wrongs don't make a right.

We are aware, of course, that this sort of deception happens outside of Christian circles, among the "pagans," as it were. We are also aware, from personal observation and via news reports, that this malpractice, unhappily, also occurs inside Christian circles. By this means, if unrebuffed or winked at, sin is introduced into one's methods of doing business. "Ministries" may be "blessed" as a result, but you may want to examine the source of the "blessing."

Faked blurbs, ghostwritten columns (and radio commentary), and pretend authorial masterworks are part of a spiritual dynamic decidedly unbiblical, inhumane, and ineffective. Not doing the Lord's work in the Lord's way in the area of publishing may help raise millions and create an empire for a "respected" Christian celebrity. But the Lord's name is taken in vain, and a watching world knowingly laughs and easily reduces Christian activism to just another play for power.

Want an example of a strategic spiritual blunder in the culture war? This is it. By no means is it alone among our challenges or the end of the world per se -- but it does indicate that the opportunity for a "Reformation of Manners" in Christian circles is rich indeed.

If the name of your favorite Christian "author" or "columnist" does not appear on the pages of The Pearcey Report or Pro-Existence, it may be part of our humble effort to show respect for work well done by real people, work that does not defraud readers and misdirect their time, money, and energies. Getting a momentary buzz because a "Big Name" "weighed in" doesn't cut it.

"Real work by real people" seems a sound principle flowing from a high view of truth, a respect for the individual, and a heartfelt desire to live with a measure of intellectual and creative integrity, and honest community, before and with the living Creator.

Related
Plagiarism: Pretend People, Fake Work
Oxford, Cambridge, Plagiarism, and Christian Worldview
I'll Take Sartre
Human Identity, Biblical Worldview, Creativity, and the Meaning of Work

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

Steyn Notes Times Coverage of Canada's "Assault on Free Expression"

By Rick Pearcey

Mark Steyn writes today:

The Canadian state's assault on free expression has never made the front page of the Dominion's leading liberal newspaper, The Toronto Star, nor of The Globe And Mail, nor even of The Vancouver Sun, when last week's show trial was happening right under their noses.

But it is on the front page of today's New York Times.
Steyn fan and blogger Michael Graham is astonished to read "something nice" about America in the pages of the NYT.

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

Monday, June 9, 2008

Pearcey Report Offline

By Rick Pearcey

The world-famous Pearcey Report is currently offline. We hope to be up and running again as soon as possible.

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

Friday, June 6, 2008

Carol Kelly Dorn -- Portrait Artist

By Rick Pearcey

Artist Carol Kelly Dorn has launched a new, beautiful website.

Carol and husband Mike and family are long-time friends of the Pearceys.

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

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Rick Pearcey on National Talk Radio Today

By Rick Pearcey

The national talk radio show Point of View, hosted by author Kerby Anderson, has asked to interview me today from 3-4 p.m. Eastern time.

Possible topics for discussion include:

* Habitat for Inhumanity
* Abortofascism and Free-Market Homicide
* Operation Marriage Crisis: Woman "Married" to Berlin Wall 29 Years

Listen online here.

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