Communism continues to obliterate

Struggles as breadwinners head West - Frontier: Europe - MSNBC.com

Here's another of your standard "husband leaves family for a time in hopes of a better life for all" story. It's about a Latvian family enduring a temporary separation as the husband/father works as a skilled construction worker in England so that he can support his wife and two children back in Latvia. Something struck me, though, in the telling. The wife and children "live(s) in one of the bleak Khrushchev-era apartment blocks known as “khrushchovki” that litter cities across the former Soviet Union. It's a step up from their previous home, a desolate cabin in the woods."

Isn't it incredible how communism continues to exert it's insidious ambition over countries that broke away more than 15 years ago? The damage wreaked by the Soviet Union on its satellite states in an attempt to Russify and communize them will be seen for decades to come. Today, it is manifesting itself in families splitting apart and populations leaving in droves because of the inability for the economies to recover in some nations. These are countries with rich histories going back centuries! And families are consigned to living in crumbling concrete tombs, a testament to the limits of man's power when he strives to create a "better man" apart from God's plan. More to come...

The right way to go about immigration

James Jay Carafano on Immigration on National Review Online Annotated

Mr. Carafano's article is spot on regarding defeat of the immigration bill and how the issue ought to be handled. Here's the core thought:

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Rather than just throwing up its hands, throwing around blame, and throwing out the hope of comprehensive reform, Congress should try an alternative approach: (1) Deny amnesty to people here illegally that will help deter future illegal migration and make the point that we insist everyone respect the rule of law. (2) Enforce workplace laws on the books and gain back control of our southern border. (3) Create more practical and flexible legal opportunities to come and work in the United States. Together these measures offer a real strategy for breaking America’s addiction to undocumented labor.
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This is exactly right! Those of us who opposed the immigration bill didn't oppose it on the basis of denying more immigrants the chance at the American dream. We opposed giving them a free pass for their illegal actions upon entering the country in the first place. Following this three-fold approach makes perfect sense. Of course, it doesn't fit the political agenda of those in Washington, so we'll probably never see it done. I don't know about you, but I'm getting real tired of politicians elected to represent--not lead--us in Washington totally ignoring the screams of the American people regarding important issues. Perhaps this bill's defeat is the first hole in the dike holding back some real change in how Congress responds to 'we the people.' More to come...

The evolution of faith and reason

What I Think About Evolution - New York Times Annotated

A very good article by Senator Sam Brownback addressing evolution via the intersection of faith and reason. Senator Brownback is a Catholic, so much of his philosophy mirrors the Church's teaching on the faith/reason scale. It's no less valid to me an an evangelical, though. I've excerpted a portion that especially expresses my feelings on evolution. More to come...

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People of faith should be rational, using the gift of reason that God has given us. At the same time, reason itself cannot answer every question. Faith seeks to purify reason so that we might be able to see more clearly, not less. Faith supplements the scientific method by providing an understanding of values, meaning and purpose. More than that, faith — not science — can help us understand the breadth of human suffering or the depth of human love. Faith and science should go together, not be driven apart.

The question of evolution goes to the heart of this issue. If belief in evolution means simply assenting to microevolution, small changes over time within a species, I am happy to say, as I have in the past, that I believe it to be true. If, on the other hand, it means assenting to an exclusively materialistic, deterministic vision of the world that holds no place for a guiding intelligence, then I reject it.
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Nicely articulated! This captures extremely well what I believe. More to come...