December 8, 2023

Banned Books, UNLV Shooting, Anti-Semitism Hearing

December 08, 2023

December 8, 2023

Quote of the day:

"Hell will be full of people who didn’t drink, didn’t cuss, and may have even been baptized. Why? Because not one of those things makes someone a christian."

^{- Voddie Baucham}

Today’s Headlines

If You Can’t Read ‘Em, Swear on ‘Em

Karen Smith, re-elected school board president of a Pennsylvania school district, was sworn in this week on a stack of banned books. Instead of the traditional choice (the Bible), Smith's husband carried a stack of various banned books for her to take her oath on, including several with sexually explicit material.

When asked to explain her choice of books, Smith said, "I'm not particularly religious. The Bible doesn't hold significant meaning for me, and given everything that has occurred in the last couple of years, the banned books, they do mean something to me at this point…"

Smith has long opposed the efforts to ban access to certain books, and when asked about the remaining books under review by the school board, she said, "They're definitely not going to be reviewed at this point.”

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The Remnant's Response

When a person freely declares, "The Bible doesn't hold significant meaning for me," it is fair to ask, "What exactly does?" In this case, we don't need to wonder, as Mrs. Smith made clear where her affections lie. When men reject God, they don't embrace 'nothing'; they always replace the veneration and worship of the Lord with the worship of something else, and that "something else" can best be described as "weak and worthless elemental things" which "enslave" us (Galatians 4:9) inevitably damaging those under their leadership, inevitably leading to great judgment (Jeremiah 23:1-2; Matthew 18:6).

God is not impressed when we swear on the Bible, but we will be depressed if we don't purpose to live by it (2 Chronicles 36:16). The remnant doesn't need a hand on a Bible to be motivated to live righteously (Matthew 5:37), and the wicked won't do right no matter what they swear by (Psalm 10:3-7). Jesus was clear in His admonishment to all men concerning the foolishness of oaths (Matthew 5:34) and especially clear about playing games if and when we do (Matthew 5:35-36).

Mrs. Smith's problem was not that she took her 'oath of office' on a stack of banned books, but that she is banning her life from THE perfect Book that would "restore her soul" and "make wise" the simple, pure children under her leadership (Psalm 19:7). Let's pray for her, the families, and the children in the school district she leads, and let us especially propose not to scoff at her decision while we say we love God's Word but fail to read and apply the Bible we wished she based her life and took her oath of office on. (Stop and hit the Bible links in this story to give yourself a start!)

Campus Anti-Semitism Hearing

The presidents of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT testified on Capitol Hill about the increasing antisemitism on their campuses, a problem affecting higher education institutions nationwide. The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel's response heightened tensions, leading to a surge in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in the U.S. A report by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International revealed a decline in Jewish students' feelings of safety on campus post-attack.

During the hearing, the university leaders acknowledged the rise in Islamophobia and other forms of hate and pledged to address them. The Republican-led House Committee grilled the administrators on topics such as ideological diversity and foreign university funding. The hearing shed light on the challenge universities face in balancing free speech and student safety, with university leaders defending their policies and actions since Oct. 7. The hearing also highlighted broader issues, such as the difficulties faced by universities in navigating the balance between free speech and student safety.
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The Remnant's Response

If you didn’t get a chance to watch any of the hearing, I would encourage you to watch three minutes of it here:

The inability of these three college presidents to answer a simple question without qualification illustrates that it wasn’t just during Isaiah’s day that the Lord brought judgment to a land by making 'the wisdom of the wise men perish, and the discernment of their discerning men to be concealed.' (Isaiah 29:14). The foolishness of the responses given by these three university presidents to Rep. Stefanik is so impossibly inept and wrong, and the outcry against it has been so dismissive and ignored, that it is seemingly impossible to believe. As Stefanik said to them, 'this is the easiest question to answer yes to that they will ever be asked in a congressional hearing.' When watching those 'who profess to be wise, become fools' (Romans 1:22), it is good to remember that 'the foolishness of fools is deceit' (Proverbs 14:8) and not simply ignorance. The wicked have no rules (Psalm 50:19); they make 'a mockery of justice…the mouth of the wicked spreads iniquity.' (Proverbs 19:8)

While the congresswoman from New York, herself a graduate of Harvard University, was excellent in her questioning, it would have been great to see her pivot her questioning using the words 'all women,' 'all blacks,' 'all homosexuals,' 'all whites,' 'all faculty and college presidents' instead of 'all Jews' to see if their 'it depends on context' answer would have remained. One can only hope had Stefanik asked, 'Does calling for the lynching of black persons or the stoning of transgender students constitute as harassment?,' that the answer would have been a sharp, clear, and fast YES.

Context does not excuse evil…but evil character hides behind context.

Now is the time to stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30) and speak out against the foolishness being propagated by elitist progressives. Silence in the midst of foolishness is the support of foolishness, and the support of foolishness is sin (Ephesians 5:11). As Edmund Burke said, 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.' The last time 'good' men were silent when the call for the genocide of the Jews was unaddressed, it wasn’t long before the world was at war.

Speak now, friends, before millions, and you, suffer for your silence. (Jeremiah 1:17)

Shootings in NV and TX

A shooting occurred at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas on December 6, resulting in three fatalities and one person critically injured, who later stabilized. The incident took place on the fourth floor of Beam Hall, home to UNLV's Lee Business School. Two university police officers engaged and neutralized the gunman, who was later confirmed dead by Las Vegas police. Authorities know the gunman's identity but have not disclosed it along with the motive. The shooting prompted a campus-wide lockdown, and four individuals were hospitalized for panic attacks. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman expressed the need for government action to prevent future shootings. UNLV and other public universities in southern Nevada closed for the day.

In Texas, a shooter has been identified and charged with capital murder in a shooting spree in Austin and San Antonio that left six people dead and three injured. The suspect was arrested after a police chase. The shooter, a former Army officer, had a history of mental health issues and was involved in a domestic violence incident leading to his discharge from the military. He faced assault charges in 2022 and violated parole in 2023, leading to authorities considering him a fugitive. Despite deputies being aware of his location during an August incident, they did not arrest him due to the challenges of serving a misdemeanor warrant for assault.

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The Remnant's Response

As we have written before, while it is good and right to create and enforce good laws (1 Timothy 1:8), it is also obvious that broken and mentally ill people will not abide by them (1 Timothy 1:9). This is why we need good and righteous men to be armed and ready to use force when necessary to stop them (Luke 22:36-38). It is foolishness to allow tyrants to confiscate weapons owned by good men, as evil unrestrained is evil unleashed (2 Thessalonians 2:7). It is the first job of the government to prosecute evil (1 Peter 2:13-14), but it is the job of good men to be ready to provide protection for others when necessary (Nehemiah 4:14). When 'deputies' fail to prosecute evil, good men must be ready to step up and stop the plague of madness before it spreads (Numbers 25:6-9).

Other news you should know

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💃 TSwift wins Time Magazine person of the year.

🏴 Palestinian flag set to fly in this US city