By Joe Hewitt
Vocal Jewish groups don't like it said that “Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.”
Would the Japanese now like to say they were not responsible for bombing Pearl Harbor and wholesale slaughter of men, women and children in China? Some Germans might like the world to believe the Germans were not responsible for the Holocaust when Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and Jehovah's Witnesses were rounded up and exterminated. Some white Americans try to make excuses for the 200 years our ancestors enslaved blacks. Of course the Japanese living today can't be blamed for something done by the fanatical leadership that had control of their country during a past generation. Nor can the Germans living today be blamed for actions of long dead Nazis who had control of Germany. White Americans living today should not be blamed for something done by a minority of their ancestors. The same is true about Jews living today; they can't be blamed for something done by fanatical Jewish leaders more than 2,000 years ago.
But let's not pretend it didn’t happen.
Volumes of volumes should count for something. The facts haven't been kept secret. The most published book in history, the Bible, says Jewish leaders insisted that Jesus be crucified. The highest court of Israel, the Sanhedrin, voted for Jesus to die, following the recommendation of the highest official in Judaism, the high priest. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, wanted to release Jesus and wash his hands of the whole affair, but a Jewish mob shouted "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
The Jewish leadership insisted on the Romans doing the dirty work, and the Romans did it at the Sanhedrin, the high priest, and the mob's fanatical insistence. Later on the Jewish leaders got over their shyness about murder and stoned Stephen, a disciple of Jesus Christ, to death because he was preaching about Jesus.
Rabbi Eugene Korn of the Anti-Defamation League, was quoted as saying Mel Gibson's movie on the Passion of Christ relies on "sinister medieval stereotypes, portraying Jews as bloodthirsty, sadistic and money-hungry enemies of God who lack compassion and humanity."
There are sadistic, money-hungry enemies of God who lack compassion and humanity in every ethnic group and culture. Are we to believe that of all the races of people on earth the Jews alone are immune from such flaws?
We can't forever condemn an entire nation for some of their ancestors' past actions, neither the Japanese, Germans, White Americans, Jews, or Romans. However, if something is true, it's true and no amount of whining will change the facts.
To say the Jews were not responsible for Jesus' death is a gross revision of history, and requires the same kind of reasoning employed by shallow thinkers who deny the Holocaust. We have to admit it: Jews crucified Christ; Germans enacted the Holocaust; the Japanese murdered children in China; white people enslaved Negroes.
Some anti-Semites pretend that Jesus was not a Jew. The crucifixion of Jesus is about God’s sacrifice that enables Jew and Gentile to be reconciled to Him. During the persecution of Jesus’ disciples, some of the bad guys were Jews. Most of the Christian victims were Jews.
I and millions of others on this planet believe Mel Gibson's film is true to Scripture. We also believe the Bible that says Israel is God's chosen people. The greatest Gentile defenders of Israel are Evangelical Christians.
The death, burial and resurrection of Christ are not about denigrating a race of people. Rather, it's about goodness and mercy; it's about an innocent one dying willingly for the guilty. In true Christianity there is no difference in races, sexes, or economic class.
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(Matthew 26:3-4, 59, 65, 66; 27:1-2, 21-25; Acts 6:11-13; 7:57-58)
Friday, September 17, 2010
Cloning Humans
By Joe Hewitt
Originally published in The Dallas Morning News
Sunday, May 19, 2001.
Where is it written, AThou shalt not clone humans@? By what standard is cloning human beings immoral or unethical?
People continue to say there are moral and ethical questions without delineating them. If a majority of people in a democracy vote to outlaw something, they don=t need a moral explanation; they can just do it. Americans well might. But I believe if they do it will be because of a panicked reaction to the unknown rather than for solid, moral or ethical reasons.
Perhaps the real, deep down, fear is that sex will eventually be downplayed. But that, of course, is ridiculous. A society that produces babies without the need of sexual relations exists only in science fiction. If human cloning is perfected and accepted it will be expensive and rare. In vitro fertilization was greeted with the same suspicion, but Atest tube babies@ and their families are doing just fine. Neither in vitro nor cloning would make an artificial human. Both require a mother=s womb.
Granted, there are dangers in human cloning. The whole idea may turn out to be a bust, producing only malformed infants. If so, a ban would be necessary. But, until we find out, outlawing scientific research would be using the same medieval reasoning that nurtured the Dark Ages. So far, only government-funded research is prevented by law.
There is nothing in the Bible to prohibit human cloning. God created. Then He equipped mankind to procreate. With the ability God gave us, we produce children. The soul is God=s department, not ours. Cloning humans is no more immoral or unethical than giving birth to an identical twin, which is a natural clone. None would claim an identical twin to be an artificial entity with no soul.
People get the wrong idea about human cloning. They think the clone emerges full grown from some mystic machine. With successful human cloning, an infertile husband=s wife could bear a son literally just like Dad. The baby would be like Dad=s identical twin but younger.
Some people were ready to forbid organ transplants because of potential unethical practices. Human cloning can proceed with the same ethical safeguards. We are no more Aplaying God@ by utilizing every opportunity to save or enrich human life than we are when we conceive and bear children, or when we use advanced gene therapy.
Our Creator is the maker of moral laws. If God chooses to prevent human cloning, it just won=t happen.
Millions of potentially adoptable American babies are being lost to abortion. Couples yearning for children are spending small fortunes to travel to Russia and other Eastern European countries to adopt. There is a great need in the hearts of these loving couples that can be filled with perfected human cloning. People who desperately want children genetically their own will demand it.
Originally published in The Dallas Morning News
Sunday, May 19, 2001.
Where is it written, AThou shalt not clone humans@? By what standard is cloning human beings immoral or unethical?
People continue to say there are moral and ethical questions without delineating them. If a majority of people in a democracy vote to outlaw something, they don=t need a moral explanation; they can just do it. Americans well might. But I believe if they do it will be because of a panicked reaction to the unknown rather than for solid, moral or ethical reasons.
Perhaps the real, deep down, fear is that sex will eventually be downplayed. But that, of course, is ridiculous. A society that produces babies without the need of sexual relations exists only in science fiction. If human cloning is perfected and accepted it will be expensive and rare. In vitro fertilization was greeted with the same suspicion, but Atest tube babies@ and their families are doing just fine. Neither in vitro nor cloning would make an artificial human. Both require a mother=s womb.
Granted, there are dangers in human cloning. The whole idea may turn out to be a bust, producing only malformed infants. If so, a ban would be necessary. But, until we find out, outlawing scientific research would be using the same medieval reasoning that nurtured the Dark Ages. So far, only government-funded research is prevented by law.
There is nothing in the Bible to prohibit human cloning. God created. Then He equipped mankind to procreate. With the ability God gave us, we produce children. The soul is God=s department, not ours. Cloning humans is no more immoral or unethical than giving birth to an identical twin, which is a natural clone. None would claim an identical twin to be an artificial entity with no soul.
People get the wrong idea about human cloning. They think the clone emerges full grown from some mystic machine. With successful human cloning, an infertile husband=s wife could bear a son literally just like Dad. The baby would be like Dad=s identical twin but younger.
Some people were ready to forbid organ transplants because of potential unethical practices. Human cloning can proceed with the same ethical safeguards. We are no more Aplaying God@ by utilizing every opportunity to save or enrich human life than we are when we conceive and bear children, or when we use advanced gene therapy.
Our Creator is the maker of moral laws. If God chooses to prevent human cloning, it just won=t happen.
Millions of potentially adoptable American babies are being lost to abortion. Couples yearning for children are spending small fortunes to travel to Russia and other Eastern European countries to adopt. There is a great need in the hearts of these loving couples that can be filled with perfected human cloning. People who desperately want children genetically their own will demand it.
The Dying Dollar
By Joe Hewitt
While the federal government is swinging a flyswatter at the fox in the henhouse a big hungry bear is coming in the open kitchen door.
Sub-prime mortgages, credit card debt, bankruptcies, and collapsing financial institutions are bad enough, the fox in the henhouse, but not our main problem. Our main problem is a looming currency crisis.
The dollar is dying.
Gold is now close to $1,000 an ounce. Not that gold is worth a lot more, but that money is worth a lot less. The dollar is losing steadily to the Euro. The Euro was introduced in 2000 on par with the dollar. The Euro reached $1.57. People in Europe and around the world who have been saving dollars will figure it out: Euros are a better investment.
I remember when Saddam Hussein’s stash of money was discovered in a Baghdad bank: large cartons full of U.S. $100 bills. There are other hoards of dollars around the world. I remember visiting Russia in 1996 and exchanging dollars for Rubles. Even in remote Siberia so many dollars were flowing through the system that the Russian currency exchanges had automatic machines to count dollars. Traveling in the Middle East I heard again and again the cry of street peddlers, “One American dollar,” or “Five American dollars.” Throughout Latin America, I have asked the question, “Do you accept dollars?” The answer is usually, “Yes.” U.S. dollars flow through the arteries, veins, and capillaries of commerce around the world.
So when people in these other countries figure out that the dollar is losing its value as fast as a new car, what will they do? They’ll ship them back to the United States where they have the most value and spend them. American real estate sales to foreign companies, already numerous, will multiply. Within a three-month period the amount of currency circulating in the United States could double. Like the run on Bear Stearns stock caused its value to plummet out of control, the rush to send dollars back to the U.S. will gain momentum until it’s a flood. When the money supply in the U.S. doubles, guess what will happen to prices. Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline hurts. Eight-dollar-a-gallon gasoline will hurt worse. How about a seven-dollar loaf of bread, and a nine-dollar gallon of milk?
Like Richard Nixon’s futile attempts to stop double digit inflation in the Seventies, the federal government will probably institute price controls with the same results, accelerated inflation.
When the tons of dollars flood into the United States we could do as other countries have done when their currency becomes worthless: just chop off some zeroes and print more money. Call it “New Dollars.”
No matter how well you dress it, a dead dollar is just a piece of paper. We got started with printing press money because we were desperate during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted a giant devaluation when we went off the gold standard. Gold went from $20 an ounce to $35 an ounce. Two generations later, President Lyndon B. Johnson did away with the silver standard, and soon gold was $350 an ounce.
Now we’re on the paper standard.
The big hungry bear is coming through the open kitchen door, and the fox is still in the henhouse. What do we do? Maybe government can do something. I hope so. I’m afraid nature will take its course and our country will suffer a major economic collapse that will spread like a tsunami around the world.
-------------------------------------------------------
While the federal government is swinging a flyswatter at the fox in the henhouse a big hungry bear is coming in the open kitchen door.
Sub-prime mortgages, credit card debt, bankruptcies, and collapsing financial institutions are bad enough, the fox in the henhouse, but not our main problem. Our main problem is a looming currency crisis.
The dollar is dying.
Gold is now close to $1,000 an ounce. Not that gold is worth a lot more, but that money is worth a lot less. The dollar is losing steadily to the Euro. The Euro was introduced in 2000 on par with the dollar. The Euro reached $1.57. People in Europe and around the world who have been saving dollars will figure it out: Euros are a better investment.
I remember when Saddam Hussein’s stash of money was discovered in a Baghdad bank: large cartons full of U.S. $100 bills. There are other hoards of dollars around the world. I remember visiting Russia in 1996 and exchanging dollars for Rubles. Even in remote Siberia so many dollars were flowing through the system that the Russian currency exchanges had automatic machines to count dollars. Traveling in the Middle East I heard again and again the cry of street peddlers, “One American dollar,” or “Five American dollars.” Throughout Latin America, I have asked the question, “Do you accept dollars?” The answer is usually, “Yes.” U.S. dollars flow through the arteries, veins, and capillaries of commerce around the world.
So when people in these other countries figure out that the dollar is losing its value as fast as a new car, what will they do? They’ll ship them back to the United States where they have the most value and spend them. American real estate sales to foreign companies, already numerous, will multiply. Within a three-month period the amount of currency circulating in the United States could double. Like the run on Bear Stearns stock caused its value to plummet out of control, the rush to send dollars back to the U.S. will gain momentum until it’s a flood. When the money supply in the U.S. doubles, guess what will happen to prices. Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline hurts. Eight-dollar-a-gallon gasoline will hurt worse. How about a seven-dollar loaf of bread, and a nine-dollar gallon of milk?
Like Richard Nixon’s futile attempts to stop double digit inflation in the Seventies, the federal government will probably institute price controls with the same results, accelerated inflation.
When the tons of dollars flood into the United States we could do as other countries have done when their currency becomes worthless: just chop off some zeroes and print more money. Call it “New Dollars.”
No matter how well you dress it, a dead dollar is just a piece of paper. We got started with printing press money because we were desperate during the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted a giant devaluation when we went off the gold standard. Gold went from $20 an ounce to $35 an ounce. Two generations later, President Lyndon B. Johnson did away with the silver standard, and soon gold was $350 an ounce.
Now we’re on the paper standard.
The big hungry bear is coming through the open kitchen door, and the fox is still in the henhouse. What do we do? Maybe government can do something. I hope so. I’m afraid nature will take its course and our country will suffer a major economic collapse that will spread like a tsunami around the world.
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