Talking about the "things that matter most" on Sept. 23
4:00 – A Heart for Freedom: The Remarkable Journey of a Young Dissident, Her Daring Escape, and Her Quest to Free China's Daughters
Sept. 25 marks the 31st anniversary of China's”'gendercide war on girls.” Chai Ling, the woman who, at age 23, was the commander-in-chief of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student rebellion, is now a U.S. citizen exiled from China. Risking imprisonment and possible death for her leadership role in the student democracy movement, she was on the run in China for ten months while being hunted by the authorities. She eventually escaped to the U.S., completed her education at Princeton and Harvard, found true love, and became a highly successful entrepreneur. But her desperate quest for freedom, purpose, and peace—which she had sought in turn through academic achievement, romantic love, political activism, and career success—was never satisfied until she had an unexpected encounter with a formerly forbidden faith. Her newfound passion for God led to her life’s greatest mission: Fighting for the lives and rights of young girls in China. She joins us.
5:00 - How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too)
Thanks to collapsing birthrates, much of Europe is on a path of willed self-extinction. The untold story is that birthrates in Muslim nations are declining faster than anywhere else—at a rate never before documented. Europe, even in its decline, may have the resources to support an aging population, if at a terrible economic and cultural cost. But in the impoverished Islamic world, an aging population means a civilization on the brink of total collapse— something Islamic terrorists know and fear. David Goldman is here to reveal how, almost unnoticed, massive shifts in global power are remaking our future.
5:40 – Don't Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid: Confronting the Left's Assault on Our Families, Faith, and Freedom
Many of us assume that this generation of young Americans is much like any other—but the fact is they’re not. Not even close. Columnist and author Marybeth Hicks reveals, with shocking confessions from the activists themselves, how liberals and socialists, atheists and radical environmentalists, have waged a continuous and largely successful campaign of propaganda in our schools and popular culture in an attempt to create a permanent majority that will usher in a very different America.
Hello, Mr. Kresta.
ReplyDeleteI have heard you speak of Islam as not sharing the same God as Christianity (interview with the author of "God Is Not One," etc.), and that the Koran can't hold up to the same level of critical scholarship to which the Bible has been subjected. This is true. However, it is the modern Catholic Church and modern Popes that have either spoken or acted contrary to these statements. The current and last Pope, as well as CCC841 speak of the Christian God and the Muslim god as being the same (evidently, simply based on being monotheistic, creator, and judge), just as they do regarding Judaism.
However, it must be noted that there is no real historical connection between the god of Mohammed and the God of Israel, except in the claim asserted by Mohammed's own imagination (or that of the "Jin" he was worried might have been deceiving him). Nor is there a connection between the Jesus Christ of conservative Christianity, and Mohammed's imagined version of Christ (merely a prophet) recorded in the Koran. Only liberal or ignorant Christians would agree with Popes and the CCC on this position. We do not worship the god of Islam because he is not the same god, though Mohammed did attribute to him similar terms regarding certain attributes and actions. Similarly, we do not regard the Mormon "God the Father," "Holy Ghost," and "Jesus Christ" as being the same as ours simply because Joseph Smith used the same names, claim to associate them with those Persons in the Bible, claimed at least some similar attributes, and claim that most Mormons (and Native Americans) are all descendants of Abraham.
It is not the Muslim Jesus that will judge the world. Christians do not hold to the corrupted, a-historical version of Jesus in the Koran (not to mention versions of certain events contradicted in the Bible). Yet it was John Paul II who kissed the Koran when meeting with some Muslim leaders years ago (a gesture Catholic priests generally retain for the scriptures during Mass), and referred to Mohammed as a "prophet" (not as a "false prophet," mind you).
How the Magesterium and Popes could say of Muslims "together with us they worship the one, merciful God" is perplexing. It is intellectual suicide, since the god of Islam claims Jesus is not the Son of God, nor God, nor died on the cross, nor is risen from the dead. Clearly they have not paid attention to the New Testament's teaching in 1 Jn 2:22-23 on the spirit of antichrist. The spirit and teaching of antichrist is clearly from the Devil. Catholic appeasement is nothing to the Islam mind of the East but another Western sign of weakness, and the weakness of its religion. I doubt the moderns would have found favor with Popes of the Middle Ages who knew attempted appeasement was death.
Ane while one may ask, what then of Jews, Paul writes that they have "a ZEAL for God, by NOT in accordance with knowledge" (Rom. 10.2). It was Jesus who said, "If you knew me, you would know my Father also" (Jn. 8.19; 14.17). The N.T. therefore equates Israel with Egypt and Babylon, and in Revelation as full of evil spirits.
So, whence the problem with p.c. perceptions of Islam? It's not just the liberal establishment. It is the Catholic Church, the modern Magesterium and the Popes. That's a hard thing to face, but it's the truth. How that lines up with the doctrine of infallibility is inexplicable. But there it stands.
Sincerely,
Stewart