Editorial Sketch of the Week: Misdirection

© Robert Ariail, Spartanburg Herald-Journal

Sunday's Quote: The difference

If you've seen the "Coexist" bumper sticker about town, then you might appreciate a certain reinterpretation (from an unknown source) that addresses the main problem with such a bold, trans-denominational mandate --

Adding to this point is something I read from the American Bible Society several days ago, which conveys a considerable difference between Christianity, at its core, and all the rest:

"The Bible itself is a mystery.  The biggest mystery about the Bible is that it exists at all -- that its ancient texts have survived down the centuries, to exert unique spiritual influence on men and women today.  Unlike sacred writings such as the Koran and the Book of Mormon, the 66 books of the Holy Bible had no single person as their author.  In fact, over an estimated 1,600 years, forty different authors from all walks of life -- including kings, shepherds, priests, prophets, a physician, a tax collector, a leatherworker, and several fishermen -- wrote the poetry, history, laws and teachings found in the Old and New Testaments.  The Bible was not even written in a single tongue: its authors employed three languages -- Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic."
-- from "Inside the Mysteries of the Bible: New Perspectives on Ancient Truths," pg. 94

Speaking the unabashed Truth

Narrated by novelist, philanthropist and Conservative commentator Joel Rosenberg, this six minute piece about Coptic revivalist Father Zakaria Botros and his efforts to spread the Gospel of Christ in the Middle East should serve as a penetrating example for all Believers.

On This Day in History

70 AD – Climaxing the First Jewish-Roman War, forces under Roman Emperor Titus sack Jerusalem.  Judea would remain under Roman control for over 550 years until Jerusalem was captured by the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate in 637.

1504 – Michelangelo's 17-foot sculpture of David is unveiled outside the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence, Italy.  It has been located at the Accademia Gallery, also in Florence, since 1873.

1565 – Outnumbered by as much as five-to-one, the Knights Hospitaller -- a Christian military order similar to the Templars -- turned back the Islamic Ottoman Empire's attempted siege on Malta in southern Europe.

1863 – At the mouth of the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana border, a small Confederate force thwarted the Federal invasion of Texas at the Second Battle of Sabine Pass.

1892 – The original Pledge of Allegiance is first published in The Youth's Companion as part of the celebration of Columbus Day: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."  The Pledge would be revised four times until finally settled upon by President Eisenhower in 1954.

1968 – The Beatles perform "Hey Jude" (pictured above) on The David Frost Show for their final performance on live television.

1975 – U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant [E-6] Leonard Matlovich appeared in uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline, "I Am A Homosexual."  Matlovich was later given a general discharge for his cover story.  He died of complications from HIV/AIDS on June 22, 1988.

On This Day in History: April 23

1635: The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.  In 2007 the school was named one of the top twenty high-schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

1910: Theodore Roosevelt made his "The Man in the Arena" speech at the University of Paris in France.  Later re-printed in his book Citizenship in a Republic, a notable portion was spoken by our 26th President as follows --

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

1948: In a key battle, a major port in Israel called Haifa is captured from Arab forces during this particular Arab-Israeli War (of which there have been at least six).  Israel's decisive victory 11 months later led to the 1949 Armistice Agreements that established boundaries between Israel and the West Bank.  "The Green Line," as it was called, would hold for 18 years.

1985: Coca-Cola releases the ill-fated "New Coke."  After a promising start, public response becomes acutely negative.  In fact many Southerners who consider the drink a part of their regional identity viewed Coca-Cola's decision to change the flavor as another surrender to the Yankees.  Ultimately the original formula is returned to the market in less than 3 months.

1988: Pink Floyd's album, The Dark Side of the Moon, leaves the charts for the first time after spending a record of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200.

1997: Attackers armed with knives, sabers, and guns killed 42 men, women, and children in the Algerian village of Omaria.  One report told of a pregnant woman whose unborn baby was literally ripped from her body and hacked apart.  Called "Islamic terrorists" by the U.S. State Department, these like-minded aggressors were responsible for 13 declared massacres in Algeria for the year.

2009: A gamma ray burst, labeled "GRB 090423," is observed for 10 seconds near the constellation Leo by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission satellite.  To date over 500 GRBs have been detected, but the first one is still recognized as both the most distant object of any kind and the oldest known object in the universe.

More from the persecution tip

Not long after Israel's victory over Egypt, Iraq and Jordan in the Six-Day War -- 20 years after Israel had defeated Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War -- philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote an op-ed in response to the antisemitism he noticed throughout the world.  Some 42 years later, Hoffer's sentiment not only rings true today, but his words also back Biblical prophecy.

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Israeli Premonition

by Eric Hoffer

Los Angeles Times; May 26, 1968

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem.  Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman.  Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese -- and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab.  Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.

Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms.  But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.  Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.  Had Nasser triumphed last June he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.

No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on.  There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia.  But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.

The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews.  They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.

Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally.  We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us.  And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us.

Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us.