Two Journeys
 
    February 12th, 1809 was a momentous day, for on it were born two men whose lives continue to affect us two centuries later.
 
    In Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England on that winter's day, Charles Robert Darwin was born to Christian parents.  Baptized as an infant, young Charles was raised in an atmosphere steeped in Christian influences.  He recalled later that as a youth "... I prayed earnestly to God to help me, and I well remember that I attributed my success to the prayers and not to my [efforts], and marveled how generally I was aided."  As a young man he believed himself called to the Ministry, for which he began to prepare.  Called upon to comfort a grief-stricken friend during his three years of pre-seminary training, Charles wrote of "so pure and holy a comfort as the Bible affords, compared with how useless the sympathy of all friends must appear."  Graduating tenth in his class of 178 from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1831,  Darwin then joined a research voyage aboard the HMS Beagle as a friend of the devoutly Christian Captain Robert FitzRoy, for what was to have been a two-year study along the coast of South America.
 
    On the same day as Charles Darwin entered the world, Abraham Lincoln was born in rural Hardin County, Kentucky.  His parents were members of the local Baptist church, but young Abraham found no attraction there and never joined; in fact, there is evidence of his having ridiculed religion in general and Christianity in particular.  His mother may have had some influence on young Abraham, but she died when he was nine years old.  By the age of 22 Lincoln left his family and struck out on his own, eventually teaching himself law and becoming a lawyer in 1837.  The same year he met Joshua Speed, who was to become his closest friend.  Lincoln remained staunchly opposed to religion.
 
    While Abraham Lincoln was launching his legal career, Charles Darwin had returned from what had become a five year voyage on the HMS Beagle with his Christianity in a shambles.  Having slowly replaced his study of the Bible with literature bitterly opposed to the very concepts of God and Creation, Darwin had gradually come to reject his faith.  By 1837, he had given lectures and published papers promoting the view called "uniformitarianism," which professes that "... all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." [2 Peter 3:4]  Having rejected first Genesis, then the entire Old Testament, and soon the concept of the miraculous, Darwin finally abandoned the Gospels and the hope of salvation.  Darwin married in 1839 and in 1841 his beloved daughter Annie was born.
 
    Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln had become engaged to Mary Todd, a young lady to whom he was introduced by his friend Joshua Speed.  On January 1, 1841, the home of Ninian Edwards was gaily decorated for what was expected to be a grand wedding.  The guests were assembled, the bride waiting, the tables set ... but the groom was absent  As the hours passed, guests began to leave until finally the heartbroken bride was left alone with a few friends.  Joshua Speed, feeling both embarrassment and concern for his friend, searched the town until he found Abraham in the throes of deepest depression.  Lincoln wrote to another associate, "I am the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be a cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better."  It was at this point, as Charles Darwin, acclaimed as a great success, was confirming his loss of faith, that Abraham Lincoln, considering himself a failure, appears to have found his.
 
    Taken by his friend to the Speed's family home in Louisville, Lincoln was attended by his friend's mother, a devout Christian who read to him daily from the Gospels, who, biographers say, "spoke of God as Father, of Jesus Christ as brother," and witnessed to Lincoln of the hope and salvation he had once ridiculed.  A historian later said "The late but splendid maturity of Lincoln’s mind and character dates from this time; and although he grew in strength and knowledge to the end, from this year we observe a steadiness and sobriety of thought and purpose discernible in his life."  In 1842, after encouraging Joshua's courtship with and eventual marriage to Miss Fanny Henning, Lincoln wrote his friend "I believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and you together, which union, I have no doubt He had fore-ordained. Whatever he designs, he will do for me yet."
 
    From 1841 onward, Darwin's health and outlook both deteriorated.  When his daughter Annie died in 1851 he was thrown into a deep depression, writing that "Our only consolation is that she passed a short, though joyous life."  A few years later the now thoroughly bitter Darwin wrote "I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine."  Surrounded by and steeped in animosity toward Christianity, Darwin had rejected not only the Bible but all hope of comfort.  In 1880, not long before his death, Darwin wrote to a correspondent that "I am sorry to have to inform you that I do not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation, & therefore not in Jesus Christ as the Son of God."  Though stories occasionally surface which claim Darwin returned to faith on his deathbed, his family and others who were with him during his final months and hours firmly deny any such thing.
 
    Abraham Lincoln, a changed man, rewon the love of Mary Todd, whom he married in November of 1842.  Over the ensuing years, both his actions and his words convey a sense of a growing faith.  The death of his young son -- within months of that of Annie Darwin -- led not to despair but to a recommitment to the Means of Grace as Lincoln continued to attend regularly the services at a conservative Calvinist church in Springfield and then in Washington D.C.  His biographer, Charles Carlton Coffin, writes "As this biography of Lincoln unfolds, there will be seen, as the years go by and the responsibilities of life roll upon him, a reverent recognition of Divine Providence, an increasing faith and childlike trust in God."  Indeed, no other US President and perhaps no other political leader came to be known more in speeches, writing and decisions for quotations from the Christian Scriptures and reliance on a Providential and Sovereign God.  His Second Inaugural Address is cited as the most openly Christian public statement by any American President.  Throughout his years as a member of Congress and finally as President, Lincoln acted in a way which seems to demonstrate a Christian faith, though he never formally joined a church.
 
    Charles Darwin began life with what seemed to be a solid faith but ended mocking God.  His theories have not only continued to do so, but led directly to movements, including Eugenics, Communism, Nazism, abortion and euthanasia which have cost hundreds of millions of lives.  Abraham Lincoln began his life ridiculing God but ended seeming to live by faith.  His actions ended the bondage of millions and set an example even political hypocrites seek to emulate and which has affected history not only in the US but around the world.
 
    Lincoln and Darwin, born on the same day into the same world, undertook two very different journeys, and bore two very different harvests of fruit, both of which remain before us after two centuries.
 
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Gary Fisher

With the imminent nationalization of the American auto industry, some changes are bound to be on the horizon.  With politicians instead of business people running the auto companies, it is likely that instead of responding to market forces, the market will be "cultivated" through various means familiar to all observers of the political animal.  In tribute to themselves, we may be confident politicians will demand automobile designs which commemorate their brilliance, and in the tradition long applied to roads, bridges and public buildings, the names of these automobiles will reflect their patrons.  General Motors being the most likely first beneficiary of this legislative largesse, it seems quite likely the familiar GM marques will be first to change.
 
And so, honoring the leader of the ruling Party, it seems possible the venerable Buick brand could be updated to the Baraq.
 
The all-new Baraq will undoubtedly be characterized by change of some sort, and in fact we can see a prototype [here], virtually bursting with such never-before-seen features as tail fins, white-sidewall tires, and oversized brightwork, truly "change we can believe in."  Under the hood our politicians have mandated a revolutionary new power plant which draws its power from a windmill mounted behind the grill to power an electric motor driving the wheels, making the Baraq entirely self-powered.  To ensure familiarity, the Baraq is designed to smoke occasionally, but only where it will least offend.
 
Production details of the all-new Baraq are still somewhat confidential.  While the Baraq will bear a "Made in the US" manufacturer's plate, the actual point of origin may be Africa, Indonesia or elsewhere.
 
Final pricing has not been set, but is expected to go higher.  Nevertheless, foreign financing has brought the Baraq where it is today, a fact much appreciated by Baraq supporters.

An article, titled "America the Illiterate," widely circulated on the internet, sets two Americas in contrast, one print-based and literate, the other image-oriented and unable to function above the level of slogans and caricatures.  The article argues persuasively that the overall level of literacy in America has declined steadily, citing standardized reading levels revealed in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which qualify at a 12th-grade reading level, compared to more recent debates including those between George Bush and Al Gore in 2000, which met a 6th to 7th grade reading level.

Ignoring for the moment the changes a century has wrought upon the language, changes which would make much of today's vocabulary as unintelligible to those of the Civil War era as much of their common vocabulary would be to many Americans today, and which alone might explain a great deal of the apparent reading-level difference, it is interesting to examine where the writer places the blame for this decline.  As the article moves toward its conclusion, we read the following:
 

Further we read that Americans "will be led toward glittering and self-destructive illusions by our modern Pied Pipers," notably by (Christian) Preachers.

Christianity, in the writer's opinion, bears the bulk of the responsibility for American illiteracy.

The premise is absurd, as is the argument -- the fact is that Christianity is built upon the written word, that public literacy in America began as the means to make the Christian Bible accessible to everyone, and that Christian churches still teach the written language to millions in America and around the world.  Literacy and Christianity are virtual traveling companions throughout history and to this day.  So what could cause the writer of this article to so thoroughly misplace the blame?

A little further research reveals that the author is Chris Hedges, who posted the original article at a website called Truthdig though (like so much on the internet) it's been widely copied, usually without attribution, since.  Hedges is a journalist, for fifteen years a reporter at the New York Times as well as a commentator for National Public Radio, the son of a Presbyterian Minister and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School.  Although Hedges was one of the first and most virulent critics of the War on Terror, to the extent he was booed off the stage for his antiwar and anti-Bush comments in a commencement address he gave in 2005, Hedges asserts he is not a pacifist, something his books and articles seem to bear out -- Hedges is an outspoken supporter of any battle or war, however large or small, in which Muslims are winning or Christians are losing; whether he has a preference is unclear, but it seems his support for Muslims is based primarily on antipathy toward Christians.
 
The origins of his vociferous attitude can probably be found in a 2004 article which links Christianity to German Nazism.  This comes to fruition in his 2007 book "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America," which explicitly argues that Christianity in America resembles German and Italian Fascism in the 1930s and presents a clear threat to the US.  Apparently embarrassed by charges that he is an atheist, Hedges followed in 2008 with a book titled "I Don't Believe in Atheists" which argues that those who oppose non-Christian religion, particularly Islam, are thinking like American Christians and thus wrong.
 
There's been quite a bit of discussion about Hedges' "America the Illiterate" article, such as [this] one in the UK which questions, to the point of refuting, several of Hedges' assumptions.
 
The anti-Christian left has depended for years on what has been called "symbolism over substance," on slogans instead of reason.  Hedges, like others of his ilk, projects the worst aspects of his own philosophy on those he perceives as his enemies.  While his article contains shreds of truth and glimpses of what might have been a fine mind, Hedges' dismal spiritual illiteracy blinds him to the truth.

In this current campaign ad, Sen. Barack Obama blames the closure of a Pennsylvania Corning Glass factory on John McCain.  While this claim itself is debatable -- the ad actually refers to "Washington Bureaucrats," a group in which Sen. Obama would be included by the ad's own standards -- closer examination reveals the assertion as another clear distortion of facts by the desperate Obama campaign.
 
As noted by The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto, the factory in question manufactured television picture tubes, a technology which is now as obsolete as Dageurotypes and hand-cranked telephones.  The story here is not that such a plant was closed, but that it remained in business for so long, that a buyer was found for the equipment, and that the sale provided jobs for workers who were called back to disassemble and ship the plant.  Certainly a federal mandate to keep picture tube plants in operation while our global competitors are hard at work on modern LCD, Plasma and other flat-screen technologies would be the height of regulatory foolishness.
 
But there's more to the story, for in addition to being obsolete, picture tubes present several environmental hazards.

Winning the War
 
    The roots of the war are planted so deeply that few, even experts, can define them.  It can be traced vaguely to the Middle East, where it has raged during much of the region's history, but by the time it was noticed outside that area the enemy had already become embedded throughout the world.  It was a war we did not want, for years a one-sided war in which the attackers went unrepelled while the victims remained unable or unwilling to identify the cause, much less to mount an effective defense.  For a long time, the only response was to care as best we could for the survivors; the maimed became a familiar sight yet the enemy was addressed only case-by-case.  Some went so far as to blame the victims for their own condition.
 
    The escalation of the war occurred first in Europe, but when some three thousand died in North America, it finally became clear, at least to some, that pre-emptive measures were not only justified but necessary, and at last the undeclared war being fought against us was responded to in kind.
 
    Many measures were tried, but after partial success had been won, it seemed as though little further progress was likely or, a growing number of naysayers asserted, even possible.  Yet as the casualties continued to mount, there were a few who stood up to pressure from those who felt the cost was too high or the cause too futile and instead proposed a redoubled effort to overcome the ancient enemy.  An enervated public pressured reluctant officials to continue and even increase support for the courageous but risky proposal, and in time all but the most bitter opponents quietly admitted the effort was working, the attacks had been sharply reduced and the enemy contained.
 
    Yet the war goes on.  Though attacks within the United States have been virtually eliminated since war was declared, the enemy continues to function elsewhere, where at times the battle rages, claiming innocent victims every year.  In Afghanistan, Pakistan and a few other countries the enemy still operates openly and attacks regularly, but even in those countries where the fighting has been suppressed, the defense effort continues, for unlike political wars which have clearly defined endings, the war against polio continues.
 
    Were you thinking of some other war?  The war against cancer, perhaps, or against ignorance, or perhaps even the War on Terror?  All those and more fall into the category of ongoing -- and necessary -- efforts, wars against threats to all mankind and yet wars which cannot, in the conventional sense, be "won."  There will be no Appomattox Courthouse surrender forthcoming from a virus, no "11th Hour, Day and Month" armistice signed and honored by poverty, and no ultimate capitulation will be won from or against terrorism.  These wars, while historic, cannot be reduced to a few easily memorized beginning and ending dates.
 
This sort of war is not an event, but a commitment.
 
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Gary Fisher

Voting Christian

     With each Autumn comes another election season, and for Christians in Democratic nations another struggle to best employ that most solemn political authority, the vote.

     Prior to the eighteenth century, few Christians had a significant voice in the political process. Most countries were ruled by monarchs of one sort or another, some of them nominally responsible to the corrupt Roman church but only loosely responsive to the average citizen. "Rex Lex" went the saying -- the King is the Law -- and all below the rank of the aristocracy obeyed or faced punishment, often severe.

     With the Reformation, however, came a new understanding (or rather a recognition of an old truth) that all, from the lowliest peasant to the King, are responsible to God for their actions, and over the next two centuries this realization came to expression in such documents as the American Declaration that "all men are created equal." Similar ideas were incorporated into the foundations of other democracies, though some refused to acknowledge God and depended instead on a presumed "goodness" in men quickly disproved by such events as the French "Reign of Terror" yet still promoted by secularists around the world.

     In each case, however, whether for good or bad, the ultimate ruling authority was essentially taken from a tiny ruling class and dispersed, at least in principle, among the citizenry. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries suffrage -- the right to vote -- was haltingly, often poorly, sometimes grudgingly or violently, extended to a widening group of citizens in most democratic countries; today in several countries the possibility of admitting even non-citizens to the voting booth is being discussed.

     Canada's citizenry, according to the 2001 Census, is 77% Christian, a figure which was matched in the U.S. according to the American Religious Identification Study of the same year. These numbers include the full range of those who call themselves Christian, of course, but the numbers are stunning; if every Christian cast his or her vote according to Christian principles, all of North America should be governed accordingly.

     Yet the profusion of laws and decisions which promote non-Christian, often openly anti-Christian views, seems to flow like a raging torrent from our Capitols. Christianity is excluded from regulatory agencies, excised from publicly-funded schools, and restricted by law to specific and small spheres of influence. The conflict is not sectarian or based on denominations; even such commonly-held Christian concepts as the Ten Commandments are kept from our schools and public buildings. In the U.S. the exceptionally vague motto "In God We Trust" has been excluded from the design of the newest one-dollar coin. In a similar vein, leaders in Congress have forbidden references to God on some official proclamations. In both the U.S. and in Canada, specifically anti-Christian laws may be permitted soon among certain ethnic communities which would supersede other national and local laws. How can a 77% majority lose so much ground to a voting minority which, for the most part, is ambivalent rather than hostile to Christianity and which often expresses support for Christian values?

     Some of the fault lies, of course, with the broad definition of "Christian" which is invariably taken by pollsters to mean everyone who claims to be such. There can be no doubt many who say "Lord, Lord" are unknown in the Kingdom, yet few would take that name merely to upset polls. Another cause of Christianity's weak influence is a misunderstanding of "Christian tolerance" which surrenders battles, forgetting that the Christian cause is not merely our own but ultimately God's cause. An irresponsible fatalism, the idea that our actions are of no significance because "God is in control" and ignores the fact that God works through the means of His people, further weakens our influence. But the most pernicious factor may well be pragmatism, the dilution of Christianity which led one elder in a conscientiously Reformed church to rebuke his Pastor for "wasting his vote" on the candidate representing the Christian Heritage Party.

     Christian voters hold two solemn responsibilities. One is that of the authority represented by their vote, through which they share in the actual duties of government at the local, regional or national level. But more importantly, Christian voters are citizens not only of their voting district; they are (if truly Christian) citizens of that Kingdom which must overrule all others. To squander or misuse that position is to fail God Himself. The world would change if every Christian voter began voting Christian.

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Gary Fisher