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“Early Christians transformed the world by thinking different and living different, not by complaining about everybody else’s morals.”

—Alan Wilson

“‘You are destroying yourself,’ he cried. ‘You have the inclination to be alone and to dream and you are afraid of dreams. You want to be like others in town here. You hear them talk and you try to imitate them.’”

—Sherwood Anderson

“On earth we are wayfarers, always on the go. This means that we have to keep on moving forward. Therefore be always unhappy about what you are if you want to reach what you are not.”

—St. Augustine

“In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.”

—2 Chronicles 31:7 (ESV)

“There would so much less laughter in the world if evil people stopped talking.”

—MadPriest

“Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry…”

—Ecclesiastes 8:15

“Did they teach you how to question when you were at the school? Did the factory help you grow? were you the maker or the tool?”

—Ewan MacColl

“Happiness happens when you are not thinking about it, when you are inhabiting your body comfortably…when you feel at peace with yourself and the world. When we live overprotective, overstimulated lives we expect more all the time, we find it hard to be unself-conscious and just do what we do; we overanalyse.”

—Rowan Williams

“You can never win a war against terror as long as there are conditions in the world that make people desperate—poverty, disease, ignorance, et cetera….I think people are beginning to realize that you can’t have pockets of prosperity in one part of the world and huge deserts of poverty and deprivation and think that you can have a stable and secure world.”

—Desmond Tutu

“The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny.”

—Edward Abbey
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Prayer Request

I try to keep an eye on the ICR. It’s not a fun job. A recent email from them requests my prayers to help them in their fight against the forces of darkness and secular humanism:

As you may know from recent editorials and feature articles that have appeared in many of the national newspapers, ICR has been castigated for attempting to teach “religion” as science in our Master of Science degree program in Science Education.

You don’t say? You mean some vile heretics don’t regard the first two chapters of Genesis as the finest science textbook ever written?

I wanted to give you some background on these reports so that you might pray in a more informed manner for the ministry and those involved in this effort.

How kind of them. A more informed prayer, then:

*“Oh Lord, please enlighten the members of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, that they may see through the lies and ridiculous idiocy proclaimed in Your name by Dr. Henry Morris III. Amen.”*

Controversy regarding our ministry is not new in itself, and the Lord has given us victory on many fronts since 1970, but the event that triggered this recent uprising was our formal application to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) for approval to offer our graduate degrees in the state of Texas (something we have done in California since 1981). ICR Graduate School received a favorable report from a THECB-fielded visiting team and subsequent approval from an “Advisory Committee” of the THECB. The press, however, along with the secular academic community, exploded in a vitriolic effort to denigrate ICR and the Commissioner’s office.

A Google News search for “Institute for Creation Research,” as of right now, turns up a mere four pages of results, with only ten articles this year. Where’s the explosion?

Also, note that the ICR grad school isn’t just moving house, they’re trying to upgrade their accreditation. Their (former) association with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools makes it look like they’re teaching, um, religion and not science.

Note, also, the attack on the “secular academic community.” That’s thems whut insist on actual facts in education. They doubt ICR’s ability to provide these, and with good reason.

As a result of the intensely negative campaign, ICR was “summoned” to a meeting this past Thursday (1-10-08) with the Commissioner and his staff to “answer questions” in preparation for the formal board meeting to consider our application for approval. While mostly cordial and responsive (due certainly to the prayers of the many who were directly praying for that meeting), the Commissioner has requested that ICR supply a rather large amount of additional information to verify that we do indeed teach science and that the ICRGS Master’s Program is indeed teaching at a graduate level….

I find it unfortunate that they’re trying to prove that they teach science. If they simply admitted they were really hoping to offer an M.S. in Selective Blindness in Texas, I’d have no problem with the degree being accredited.

Also pray that we (and any who write to the Commissioner on our behalf) will remain gracious and truthful in our responses….

I think they’re kind of shooting themselves in the foot with any prayer for “truthfulness.”

Finally, if you would feel comfortable writing a kind note of encouragement to Dr. Paredes thanking him for his attempt to be fair in our evaluation, and also expressing your support for the Christian perspective of origins (a better word than creation), it may help Dr. Paredes understand that there are substantial numbers of educated people in this nation who are not persuaded by the evolutionary theories of life.

Emphasis mine, because it points out an even more important reason to pray for Dr. Morris: Pray that he repents of his violation of the Ninth Commandment. By implying that his version of origins is the “Christian” version, he bears false witness against millions of Christians who happen to hold a grown-up understanding of theology. It is time for reasonable Christians to stop tolerating this nonsense. Fundamentalists argue that the Garden of Eden story is the basis of Christianity and that if you don’t believe it’s literally true than there’s no Original Sin, no Fall, no need for a Savior, and therefore Christianity is a lie. The first and loudest voices responding to such nonsense ought to be saying, “Well, I’m a Christian, and I think you’re an idiot. Don’t claim to speak for me.” Where are those voices?

Field Reports:

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