Comments Which Conservatives Block From Their Blogs For October 10, 2018

Oct 8

To Joe Carter and his blogpost on the Columbian Exchange. That exchange includes the benefits enjoyed by Europe and the suffering and loss of life brought to the natives of the New World by Europeans like Columbus. This appeared in the Acton blog.

It's sad that when listing the parts of the Columbian Exchange, the atrocities committed by Columbus and other Europeans are not mentioned. Atrocities such as mass killings, slavery, and exploiting workers were not mentioned alongside the loss of life from European diseases. How could such an omission exist in a Christian blog written by a Christian?

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To Allyson Wieringa and her blogpost questioning the call for the government to put Church charities out os business and to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. This appeared in the Acton blog.

What is wrong with the government making Church charities not needed? Whose loss is that anyway? And if the Church no longer needs to worry about providing charity because those in need are receiving help elsewhere, then doesn't that mean that the Church can focus more on preaching the Gospel?

Though I can't speak for England, right now, we are in an Ayn Rand coup of the American government. In that coup, those with the most wealth use their wealth to seize power over the government. Then they use that power to continually reduce  fulfilling their social responsibilities. As a result, tax burdens are shifted more toward those who have less and that results in sharp increase in deficit spending. The Ayn Rand opportunist try to use their arguments and power to reduce or even eliminate social safety nets even if those safety nets are self-funding and thus do not contribute to the deficit.
We should note here the kind of government in which Ayn Rand's family financially succeeded: the government of the Tsars. And the Tsars were dictators who enforced the belief that to oppose the Tsar is to oppose the nation. That is similar to the declarations made by Lenin and the Bolsheviks with respect to the workers.
One other point must be made here. Though raising the minimum wage is good, it leaves a major issue unaddressed. Seeing that socialism, from a Marxist perspective, relies on the dictatorship of a proletariat democracy, letting the gov't alone to set all increased wages does not empower the workers. Rather, it establishes a particular group of people in government as the vanguard for the workers. And like most vanguards such as Lenin's Bolshevik Party right after the Russian Revolution, they will declare that anyone who opposes them opposes the workers whom they say they represent. And then we are right back where we started from with the Tsars and Lenin. Not that we don't need the government to raise the minimum wage. What we do need is a minimum wage that is high enough to help and low enough to require workers and owners to continue to meet together to see what each side needs and then to start making decisions that benefits both sides.

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Oct 9

To Thomas Ascik and his blogpost about some Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage and laws that addressed inheritance. In that blogpost, DOMA, the Defense Of Marriage Act, is referred to. This appeared in the Imaginative Conservative blog.

I want to comment on one part of the article above: the references to DOMA. DOMA stands for the Defense Of Marriage Act. But the name itself is ambiguous. Which or whose marriage is being defended? The answer is simple: no one's marriage is being defended. Instead the desire of same-sex couples to be legally married is being attacked by those who claim to have a monopoly on the definition of marriage. Thus, perhaps we should call DOMA, OBTMAA-- the Offensive By Traditional Marriage Activists Act.

The legalization of same-sex marriage does not threaten any traditional heterosexual marriage. Claims otherwise are based on fears that those moving in to the marital neighborhood will bring down the property values. On the other hand, despite the results of inhibiting monogamous relationships and thus reducing promiscuity in the LGBT community, those opposed to same-sex marriages by other people are threatening the marital prospects for those in the LGBT community. Why do they do that? It is simply because they want to impose their own religious/cultural beliefs on others. That imposition would appear to violate the 1st Amendment regardless of how democratically the legal definition of marriage was determined. Why the imposition? There are a number of reasons one can find when talking to DOMA apologists.

Conservative Christianity's Three-Front War

It seems that we have multiple wars inside the United States. The  War on Christmas and the War on Women are two of the most well known wars that "exist." Of course they are not official wars, they are simply descriptions of cultural conflicts in society. However, I would like to add one more to the list of wars in American society. That war is the religiously conservative Christian War Against Change. Considering that many of us religiously conservative Christians (a.k.a., flaming fundamentalists with flaming referring to being passionate about the tenets of Christian Fundamentalism) view America as very our own special homeland. It is our homeland because we view America as starting as a Christian nation being built on biblical principles. And what we have seen is a spiritual societal coup by secularism so that many of us feel that we have lost our rightful place in society. That place is that of being privileged in exercising some degree of control over society's laws and its culture. But in the words of a famous piece of Jazz music, 'things ain't what they use to be.'

From my experiences on the Christian blogfront, my fellow religiously conservative Christians understandably see current changes as threats and are fighting a three front war against change. I should note here my political views differ quite a bit from most of my fellow religiously conservative Christians. I am a socialist and they tend to be either Republicans or Conservative Libertarians. Because of the differences in our politics, I can't agree with their war against change. And that tells us something right there. That perhaps, this war against change is more naturally driven than spiritually driven.

The fronts on which many of my fellow flaming fundamentalists are the Modernism front, the Post Modernism front, and a historical front where the historical subject of front is our nation's past.

What are meant by Modernism and Post Modernism? One way of understanding human time periods is to break them up by what metanarratives are predominantly used by people to understand the world around them. Metanarratives themselves refer to beliefs and stories people used to interpret the world. There are three time periods using the predominant metanarrative of the time to distinguish each division of time. They are Pre Modern, Modern, and Post Modern. With Pre Modernism, people used some kind of faith or belief in the supernatural to interpret the world around them. In other words, one's faith or belief in the supernatural served the metanarrative that most people relied on. With Modernism, people rely mostly on science and reason to interpret the world around them. Thus here, science and reason served as the metanarrative for most people. Post Modernism is the odd child of the three. For with Post Modernism, the metanarratives of both Pre Modernism and Post Modernism are rejected. What serves as a basis for truth then? It is kind of a mixture between relativity and an outcome-based truth system. With the latter, the truth of a belief or set of beliefs depends on whether they have produced oppression or exploitation, Since history is replete with many examples of people using their faith or science as a justification for dominating over others, both are rejected as having any ability to provide a metanarrative. Thus, Post Modernism is the most reactionary of the three time periods.

So now we can discuss the first front on the Christians War Against Change: the fight against Modernism. Now what will be said here are general statements that apply to the majority of religiously conservative Christians I have encountered or observed. They are not absolute statements applying to all religiously conservative Christians.

Now it isn't the case that religiously conservative Christians who are fighting against Modernism reject all that science and reason have to offer. Rather, there are two specific areas where these Christians see themselves in a battle. These areas are climate change and the social sciences. What is the Christian beef against the science of climate change? It is that if the claims made by climate change scientists are true, then we Christians must make changes to our way of life here in America. In addition, many businesses which serve America must also make changes.

In other words, there isn't anything about climate change science that directly challenges Christian belief. And yet, climate change science has spurred a tribal response from many religiously conservative Christians. And by tribal response, I mean that Christians tend not to accept what unbelieving climate change scientists say about what is happening and our future. They will sometimes listen to fellow believers who talk about climate change. But outside of that, there is real skepticism experienced by my fellow religiously conservative Christians toward climate change science. 

And this tells us something that perhaps we Christians may not want to admit. That the reason why we are skeptical is because of what we have so tightly associated with our Christian faith: our nation's status quo and business interests. Of course, there is another factor involved in the Christian opposition to climate change science. That other factor is that of a turf war. Who can best describe the world around us? Is is secular science with its rejection of Creation and belief in evolution, or is it the Bible with its Creation account?

Psychology is another battle front where religiously conservative Christianity is fighting against Modernism. And though the battle lines are not as sharply defined as they are in Christianity's fight against climate change science, what we see is still a turf battle for who can best describe the world around us. What we do see here is more intermixing between Christianity and psychology than we see with climate change. But the more conservative the Christian, the more suspicious they are toward what can be learned from psychologists.

The second front religiously conservative Christians are fighting on is the one against Post Modernism. And the particular battle where most of the fighting takes place centers on LGBT issues. The current battle over same-sex marriage served as the Waterloo for Christian control over culture according to many of the religiously conservative Christians I have read. And when we add transgenderism to the mix, what many of my fellow religiously conservative Christians have concluded is that American society has rejected belief in absolutes and objective truth.

But why did so many religiously conservative Christians feel the need to oppose the legalization of practices like Same-Sex Marriage (SSM)? Many of the Christians bloggers I have read felt that it was an attack on marriage and that society's future revolves on the health of marriage. But such doesn't provide a complete answer because the state of marriage without SSM was not good anyway. Divorce rates and the number of single parents were way too high to say that marriage was doing well. My intuition says that much of the religiously conservative opposition to SSM was a look at who is moving into the neighborhood argument. Basically, this refers to neighborhoods in the past whose property values might have fallen once minorities moved into homes. Unfortunately, such reveals just a sliver of nation's deep historical problem with racism.

So here, many religiously conservative Christians argued that marriage would no longer be valued as it was if same sex couples were allowed to be married too. This in-your-face cultural change of having to see same sex couples' marriages being put on an equal status with heterosexual marriages signaled a 'sky is falling' response by many a Christian. Rod Dreher's Benedict Option was in response to changing sexual mores, especially the acceptance of homosexuality in society, such as seen in SSM.

The final front is more historic in nature. It is the belief, despite the rampant racism in our nation's history, that this nation was founded on biblical principles and thus was created as a Christian nation. And that nation was not only Christian, it believed in limited government. And thus the belief in limited government has become strongly associated with religiously conservative Christianity. So here we see the political front of the War Against Change. And many religiously conservative Christians seem to believe that conservative political ideology, especially when it emphasizes limited government, is wedded to their faith.

But why would this be the case? The only answer I can come up with revolves around tribalism and the resulting turf battles between secular liberals when they are in charge of government and the Church over who knows what is best for the American people. Many religiously conservative Christians who believe in limited government believe so because they see the Church as being solely responsible for helping those in need. Of course for that to happen, government would have to support the Church and that would give the Church a privileged position in society. While for others, they simply want as little interference by the government as possible.
 
But the tribalism itself is another key to understanding why many religiously conservative Christians believe in limited government. For that tribalism tells many of us religiously conservative Christians that we have everything to teach these secular liberals and nothing to learn from them.

It is unfortunate that many of us religiously conservative Christians are fighting on any of these 3 fronts, let alone all of them. It is totally unnecessary. For many of us, the fear of compromising or even losing our faith by benefiting from unbelievers drives us to fight this war. Ironically, this doesn't stop many of us religiously conservative Christians from wedding our faith to conservative political ideology. In addition, intolerance and fear of those who are different is also a contributing factor. In the end, our War Against Change not only hurts us and not only hurts those around us who would benefit from change, it dishonors the Gospel which has been sent by God to save those who believe.

Comments Which Conservatives Block From Their Blocs For November 2, 2016

Oct 28

To Joe Carter and his blogpost that proposes that conservatives could control the Supreme Court through a Democratic administration by having Congress change the size of the Supreme Court. This appeared in the Gospel Coalition.

Considering that the criteria conservatives use to determine whether a judge is an activist judge depends on whether they agree with any judgment made by that judge, this argument of controlling SCOTUS by lowering the number justices is rather petty.

We simply don't understand what is involved in changing the nation from being pro-choice to being pro-life. We don't understand because not enough people are consistently pro-life. Thus, the actual pro-life base is not big enough to establish and win arguments where those arguments are most important: in the street.

When abortion was illegal, its status changed because of the number of ordinary people who still sought abortions. And since our prisons are already overcrowded and the number of doctors to provide healthcare is marginal, changing the law to criminalize abortion at this point in time can bring damaging unwanted consequences as well as could be unproductive to the pro-life cause. And considering the damage that is already caused by pro-life advocates excusing our exploitive economic system, our deadly foreign polices, and our way of life that continues to damage the environment, we need to find ways that bolster pro-life credentials before we depend on changes in the law.

In addition, this proposal of changing the size of the Supreme Court is such a temporary fix that it risks making the size of the Supreme Court a kind of ping pong issue which could constantly be changed with each changing of the guard in Congress.

Any real pro-life victory in our nation must be a comprehensive one, not a piecemeal one. And the biggest obstacle we have to the pro-life cause is not in the courts but in the streets. Thus, this proposal of changing the size of the Supreme Court is really inadequate and lacks vision.

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Oct 29

To Joe Carter and his blogpost on how free trade reduces poverty. This appeared in the Acton blog.

It is tiring to keep pointing out that those who support free trade do so by filtering the evidence and the points they make. This is what our "free trade" has brought. The offshoring of jobs where trade is conducted without concern for labor conditions elsewhere and thus it supports the exploitation of workers  and others in other nations (see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.html) for the sake of business profits. BtW, we should note that rescuing people from abject poverty does not imply that one is rescued from poverty.

We should note that what free trade does is to remove government controls on trade. When a government is a working democracy, then what free trade accomplishes is to remove democratic controls on trade. Finally we should note that many nations have built their own industries using protectionists measures. We might ask here whether free trade prevents nations from building their own industries and thus ensures a caste system for nations that embrace free trade.

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Oct 30

To Joe Carter and his blogpost about why some do not trust authority. This appeared in the Acton blog.

It seems to me that the fear of authority is not highly tied to the personal feeling of being judged, but it is caused by the abuse of power those with authority sometimes execute. This is especially true when it comes to the police. From the news stories I've seen, some groups of people are reluctant to call the police in an emergency because doing so before has led to the deaths of innocent people. For others, the police have meant the arrest of innocent friends and family members while for others it has led to racial profiling.

What is surprising is that race plays a role in many areas regarding how authority is perceived, but there is no mention of race as being a possible contributing factor for how authority is received.

In the meantime, perhaps the purpose of this article can best be described by the following quote from the report The Crisis Of Democracy:

In the past, those institutions which have played the major role in the indoctrination of the young in their rights and obligations as members of society have been the family, the church, the school, and the army.





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This comment is currently awaiting moderation. This blogpost will be updated once the results of that moderation are known to this blog.

Update--though being listed as being posted Oct 31, the comment below was not posted until sometime later after November 2.

Oct 31

To Trevin Wax and his blogpost about 3 truths we need to remember when voting. This appeared in the Gospel Coalition website.

If only the 3 truths mentioned above were more evident in practice than just in theory. What we have seen, at least through my lifetime and I was born when Eisenhower was President, is that the Church, at least the conservative American Church, is yes political, but is not one that speaks truth to power nor is it on the front lines helping the vulnerable. Rather, the following description from the report The Crisis Of Democracy best describes the conservative American Church that both I have grown up in and still live.

In most of the Trilateral countries in the past decade there has been a decline in the confidence and trust which the people have in government, in their leaders, and, less clearly but most importantly, in each other. Authority has been challenged not only in government, but in trade unions, business enterprises, schools and universities, professional associations, churches, and civic groups. In the past, those institutions which have played the major role in the indoctrination of the young in their rights and obligations as members of society have been the family, the church, the school, and the army. The effectiveness of all these institutions as a means of socialization has declined severely.


Please note that these comments were made after what the report called the 'excess of democracy' from the 1960s. And we should note the some of the civilizing effects of that excess of democracy included the beginning of racial justice, equality, and reconciliation as well as examination of US foreign policies and wars.

Where was the conservative Church during Martin Luther King's protests against racism, economic exploitation, and the Vietnam War? In fact, where was it during the 1970s? We know where it was during the 1980s; it was supporting Ronald Reagan whose administration supported contra terrorists in Nicaragua and the military and paramilitaries of El Salvador where a war against priest advocating liberation theology was being conducted.  In addition, the fruit of Reagan's anti-union/pro-business stand can be seen in the still ever increasing wealth disparity we see in America today.

And where has the conservative Church been regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the sanction years on Iraq hundreds of thousands of children died or Bush's invasion of Iraq? Where is the conservative Church standing regarding police accountability and Black Lives Matter? Where is the conservative American Church standing regarding environmental issues and is it defending the Standing Rock Sioux in their protest against the DAPL? Has the conservative American Church said anything about neoliberal capitalism or is it blindly supporting free markets and free trade without considering how those approaches affect all of Capitalism's stakeholders?

And where has the conservative American Church stood in protecting the equality of those from the LGBT community?

The three truths mentioned above, from what I've seen, are more present in theory than in practice.

BTW, there should be at least one point of correction. At Occupy Wall Street, we practiced a form of anarchism to a certain degree. But that does not even suggest that we had no order. The idea behind anarchism is not that there is no order, the idea is that because all are counted as leaders, there is no single leader or group of leaders. In other words, with anarchism, leadership and power are distributed as widely as possible rather than consolidating it as is practiced in other systems. This is not to say that anarchism is always the best form of self-governing. It is to say that we should represent it accurately. What I saw in Occupy's implementation of anarchism were rules and order that everyone could consent to.

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To Rosaria Butterfield and her blogpost response to Jen Hatmaker about how homosexual relationships are unbiblical and thus sin in contras to Hatmaker's view. This appeared in the Gospel Coalition website.

If I understand the article correctly, in terms of sexual ethics, we must promote and even push for laws that enforce Biblical sexual ethics for nonChristians in society. However, we don't do that for unbliblical heterosexual marriages. And we don't legally prohibit nonChristians from worshiping idols and false gods? So why should we support and even push for laws that prohibit same-sex marriages?

Could it be that our intolerance for same-sex marriage (SSM) in society is just one way by which we are failing to love those in the LGBT community? After all, supporting SSM doesn't prohibit one from seeing it as sin, nor does it prohibit one from sharing what the Bible says about SSM. But legally prohibiting SSM does not recognize the equality of those from the LGBT community with us in society. What is it that Paul says in I Corinthians 5:12-13?

We need to see the differences that exist between being a person in good standing in society from being a person in good standing in the Church. When we confuse those two standards, we make society a supplemental disciplinary arm of the Church just as Martin Luther tried to do when he wanted German society and princes to punish the Jews for their unbelief. How is it that we can love our LGBT neighbor while wanting society to punish and marginalize them for their sexual orientation and identity? Yes, sex outside of a monogamous heterosexual relationship is sin. But does that imply that society must punish that behavior? If so, what other unbiblical behaviors must society punish? Should we eliminate freedom of religion from The Constitution?
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To R. Scott Clark and his blogpost quote of Rosaria Butterfield who called Jen Hatmaker’s words justifying homosexuality a ‘well-meant millstone’. This appeared in Heidelblog.

Is there more than one well-meant millstone here? For example, were laws that prohibited SSM and the current lack of legal protection for those in the LGBT community at work which exists in the majority of our states millstones to people like Jen so that the only choice they see is to either justify what is clearly sin or to continue marginalizing those in the LGBT community?

ONIM For January 18, 2016

Christian News

• Turkey: Christians Fear State Interference In Churches -- Christian Today (UK)
• Pastors At High Risk Of Stress And Psychological Problems In Sweden -- Christian Today (UK)
• Christian Refugees Exposed To Brutal Harassment In German Camps -- Christian Today (UK)
• Iran Frees Pastor Saeed Abedini After 3 Years In Prison -- Christianity Today
• The Top 50 Countries Where It's Now Hardest To Be A Christian -- Christianity Today
• Episcopal Church Suspended From Anglican Communion Over Same Sex Marriage -- Christianty Today
• 5 Favorite, 5 Least Favorite Instruments Used In Worship -- The Christian Post
• Pope Francis: Indifference To God Leads To Indifference To Neighbor -- The Christian Post
• Christian MP's Say Ofsted Inspections Will Force Sunday Schools To Ban Biblical Teachings On Marriage -- The Christian Post
• Does Evolution Require More Faith Than Christianity -- The Christian Post
• God's Love And The Cross Of Christ -- Reformed African American Network
• Esther, Ethnic Betrayal, And African-Americans -- Reformed African American Network
• What Does RAAN Mean By "Reformed" -- Reformed African American Network
• Why I Will Protest A School I Love -- The Gospel Coalition
• Theological Statements By Dr. Hawkins -- DrLaryciaHawkins.com

World News

• U.S. Dropped 23,144 Bombs On Muslim-Majority Countries In 2015 -- Alternet
• Multiple Jihadist Attacks Kill More Than 30 In Iraq -- Yahoo News
• Exclusive M.I.A. Responds To French Soccer Team Demanding Take Down Of "Borders" Video About Refugees -- Democracy Now
• Cop's Instagram Reveals Passion For Arresting Activists -- Gothamist
• U.S. Supreme Court Rules Florida's Death Penalty Is Unconstitutional -- Tampa Bay Times
• Supreme Court Appears Ready To Deal A Serious Blow To Unions -- Talking Points Memo
• Boston Schools' Budget May Fall Short By $50 Million, Chang Says -- Learning Lab
• Noam Chomsky Discusses 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists -- YouTube
• Chicago Cops Frantically Fight To Destroy Misconduct Records Before Homan Square Investigation -- Free Thought Project
• Women Can't Wait To Get Home And Take Off Uncomfotrable Persona -- The Onion
• The Queen Of England Promises To "Take Back" America If Trump Is Elected -- The D.C. Brief
• Father Who Killed Teen Son After Mistaking Him For An Intruder Will Not Be Charged -- The Washington Post
• The Black Actress Playing Hermione Has The Best Comeback To Racist Critics -- Yahoo News
• Law Prof: Cruz Is Not A Natural Born Citizen And Thus Can't Be President -- Talking Points Memo
• Israel Says Swedish Foreign Minister Is 'Not Welcome' In Country -- The Guardian
• Obama's Last State Of The Union And The Myth Of Bipartisanship -- Truthout
• The EPA's Hush-Hush Response To The Flint Water Crisis -- Common Dreams
• Ted Cruz Did Not Disclose 2012 Senate Campaign Loan: NY Times -- Yahoo News
• 'Ted Cruz Is Not Eligible To Be President,' Declares Constitutional Law Expert -- Reverb Press
• Denmark Poised To Pass Law To Strip Refugees Of Their Possessions -- Democracy Now
• 'Mask comes Off' As Venezuelan Right-Wing Opposition Shows Its True Colors -- Venezuela Solidarity Campaign
• How Congress Is About To Make It Easier For Chemical Companies To Poison Us -- Anti-Media
• The 2 Most Dangerous Numbers In The Universe Are Threatening The End Of Physics -- Yahoo News
• Judge Throws Out Excessive Court Case Against Officer Who Injured Indian Man -- Huffington Post
• Victory: Wedding Venue Cannot Discriminate Against Same-Sex Couples -- NYCLU
• Elizabeth Warren Finally Speaks On Israel/Gaza: Sounds Like Netanyahu -- I Take Liberty With My Coffee
• Iran Fills Heavy Water nuclear Reactor Core With Cement -- Reuters
• Fox Creek Fracking Operation Closed Indefinitely After Earthquake -- CBC News
• Monsanto Lab On Lockdown After Scientists Find Shattered Tomato Containment Unit -- The Onion
• Real Madrid To Host Survivor Of West Bank Arson Attack -- Haaretz
• The Injustice System: A Tale Of Two Tyras -- The Guardian
• Congress Removes Ban On Funding Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion In Ukraine -- Revolution News
• 170 Prominent Economists Back Bernie Sander's Plan To Rein In Wall Street -- U.S. Uncut
• Texas Border Patrol Burried Immigrants In Mass Graves, State Says 'No Laws Were Broken' -- Counter Current News
• Saudi Arabia Buying Up Farmland In US Southwest -- CNBC
• Israeli Forces Shoot Dead 2 Palestinians In Gaza Clashes -- Ma'an News Agency
• International Writers & Artists Protest Saudi Plans To Execute Palestinian Poet -- Mint Press News
• Flint Doctor Mona Hanna-Attisha On How She Fought Gov't Denials To Expose Poisoning Of City Kids -- Democracy Now
• Sanders: Michigan Governor Must Resign Over Flint Lead-Poisoning Crisis -- BernieSanders.com
• Hate Of The Union: The TPP Is An Offense To The People -- ZNet
• Why Is Indonesia Not In The Saudi-Led Sunni Coalition Against Terror? -- ZNet
• Donald Trump Can Still See How Awful The American Mainstream Media Is -- ZNet
• Suspected Islamist Gunmen Take Hostages In Attack On Burkina Faso Hotel -- Yahoo News
• Margaret Flowers: Green Party Candidate US Senate Maryland -- YouTube
• Inspiration From The Suffragettes -- The Daily Kos
• Unelected Manager Who Caused Flint Water Crisis Now Runs Detroit Schools -- Democracy Now
• Chomsky Hits Back At Erdogan: Accuses Him Of Aiding Terrorists -- Mint Press News
• Turkey Detains Academics As Chomsky Takes Aim At Erdogan's Brutality, Hypocrisy -- Common Dreams
• 'Welcome To America': Australia's First Female Muslim Parliamentarian 'Interrogated' At LAX -- Raw Story
• Israel Tortures Palestinian Children; Keeps Them In Outdoor Cages In Winter: Rights Group -- Mint Press News
• Taiwan Elects First Female President -- The Guardian
• Muslim Celebrities -- CBS News
• Drones And The Imperial Mindset -- Truthout

Pick(s) Of The Litter

• Privilege, Pathology And Power -- New York Times
• The Facts On The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- Flush The TPP
• Israeli Author To Le Monde: 'We Live Under An Apartheid Regime' -- Haaretz
• Vote All You Want. The Secret Government Won't Change -- Boston Globe
• 'White Privilege' Just Made An Appearance In The Presidential Race -- The Washington Post
• What Is White Privilege -- The Washington Post
• Wind Turbine Makes 1,000 Liters Of Clean Water A Day In The Desert -- Collectively Conscious
• Flint Sends Overdue Notices To Flint Residents Who Aren't Paying For Their Water, Which Is Poison -- Slate
• Budget Cuts And Negligence Poisoned The Drinking Water In Flint, Mich -- Truthdig
• Speed And Secrecy Killing Democracy -- Urban Milwaukee
• Israel Furious At UN Report Detailing Torture Of Palestinian Children -- WeAreChange.org
• Socialist Response To The State Of The Union With Kshama Sewant -- ZNet
• 4 Ways Martin Luther King Was More Radical Than You Thought -- Think Progress

ONIM For June 30, 2014

Christian News

• Ignite Church Attempts To Recruit Young Men By Giving Away AR-15 -- The Joplin Globe
• An Open Letter To Our Presbyterian Friends -- Huffington Post
• Marriage And The Interpretation Of Scripture Concerning Marriage -- The Presbyterian Layman
• It's Time To Leave The Presbyterian Church (USA) -- The Presbyterian Layman
• Woman Sentenced To Death For Apostasy, Ordered To Be Released -- Huffington Post
• Sudanese Christian Woman Arrested Again, Legal Team Says -- CNN
• Steve Chalke: 'We Need To Redefine What Evangelical Is' -- Christian Today (UK)
• Forget About Politicians 'Doing God', Churches Must Learn How To 'Do Politics' -- Christian Today (UK)
• Meriam Ibrahim Given Refuge At US Embassy In Sudan -- Christian Today (UK)
• The Forgotten Side Of The First World War -- Christianity Today
• Bahrain Welcomes Its First Catholic Cathedral -- Christianity Today
• Sabbath Not A Means To More Sporadic Work -- Christianity Today
• Many Do Not See God Or Hear His Voice -- The Christian Post
• 10,000 Flee Christian Communities In Northern Iraq As ISIS Takes Over Mosul, Says UNHCR -- The Christian Post

World News

• Injection Wells, The Poison Beneath Us -- Publica
• Crashes Mount As Military Flies More Drones In U.S. -- The Washington Post
• Posh Detroit Suburb Erects Berlin Wall Style Barricade At Detroit Border -- MFI Miami
• Confirmed: 39 Women Illegally Sterilized In California Prisons -- RT
• Obama Announces Plan To Save Honeybees -- CNN
• Oil Drilling Threatens Solitude Of National Park -- Yahoo News
• The Israeli Government Has Adopted An Official Policy Of Harming The Innocent -- B'Tselem
• Boston Subway Ads Are Shocking--'And So Is The Reality On The Ground' -- Mondoweiss
• Study Links Pesticide Exposure In Pregnancy To Autism -- Reuters
• Russia's Putin Renounces Right To Send Troops To Ukraine: Kremlin -- Reuters
• Detroit Residents Seek U.N. Intervention As City Shuts Off Taps To Thousands -- Democracy Now
• A SWAT Team Blew A Hole In My 2-Year-Old Son -- Salon
• What Is The Quality Of Scientific Evidence Against Iran -- Truthout
• Pesticides Threaten Birds And Bees Alike -- Yahoo News
• ISIS Propaganda Video Shows Their Weapons, Skills In Iraq -- The Washington Post
• U.N. Voices Concern Over Israel Crackdown On West Bank -- Democracy Now
• Water For Corporations, Not For People -- Occupy.com
• March Of Millions Demands 'Russia Without Putin' -- Waging Nonviolence
• The UK Is Making It A Legal Duty To Maximize Greenhouse Gas Emissions -- ZNet

Pick(s) Of The Litter

• The Ghoulish Face Of Empire -- Truthdig
• The Disintegration Of The Iraqi State Has Its Roots In World War I -- Smithsonian.com
• Enforced Disappearances Rise Under el-Sissi In Egypt -- Waging Nonviolence
• Why So Many Brazilians Hate The World Cup -- Animal-New York
• Air Pollution Spikes In Homes Near Fracking Wells -- Forbes