<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>The Christian Diarist</title>
	<atom:link href="http://christiandiarist.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://christiandiarist.com</link>
	<description>A perspective on the latest news and issues</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 19 May 2013 21:10:55 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.com/</generator>
<cloud domain='christiandiarist.com' port='80' path='/?rsscloud=notify' registerProcedure='' protocol='http-post' />
<image>
		<url>http://0.gravatar.com/blavatar/6d6a50099cc61a1169840ad055143cc5?s=96&#038;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png</url>
		<title>The Christian Diarist</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com</link>
	</image>
	<atom:link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="http://christiandiarist.com/osd.xml" title="The Christian Diarist" />
	<atom:link rel='hub' href='http://christiandiarist.com/?pushpress=hub'/>
		<item>
		<title>A Profane Virgin Mary Christians Won’t Recognize</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/26/a-profane-virgin-mary-christians-wont-recognize/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/26/a-profane-virgin-mary-christians-wont-recognize/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:06:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ENTERTAINMENT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA['TESTAMENT OF MARY']]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BROADWAY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CHRIS OFILI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[COLM TOIBIN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DEBORAH WARNER]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FIONA SHAW]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HOMOSEXUAL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LESBIAN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PLAY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TONY AWARDS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2394</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[“Full of grace and compassion,” praised USA Today. “Spellbinding &#38; exquisitely emotional,” gushed Entertainment Weekly. “Likely to be a force in Tony races this season,” predicted the New York Times. So on what Broadway production were those publications heaping such plaudits? “The Testament of Mary,” which opened this week on the so-called “Great White Way.” [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2394&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2400" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/testament-of-mary1.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2400" alt="BROADWAY PLAY, ‘THE TESTAMENTOF MARY,’ IS PROFOUNDLY OFFENSIVE TO CHRISTIANS. " src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/testament-of-mary1.jpg?w=660"   /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">BROADWAY PLAY, ‘THE TESTAMENTOF MARY,’ IS PROFOUNDLY OFFENSIVE TO CHRISTIANS.</p></div>
<p>“Full of grace and compassion,” praised USA Today. “Spellbinding &amp; exquisitely emotional,” gushed Entertainment Weekly. “Likely to be a force in Tony races this season,” predicted the New York Times.</p>
<p>So on what Broadway production were those publications heaping such plaudits? “The Testament of Mary,” which opened this week on the so-called “Great White Way.”</p>
<p>Here’s what you would never know from reading the reviews appearing in the mainstream media: The one-woman play is one of the most patently offensive takes on the mother of Christ since Chris Ofili’s 1996 painting, titled “The Holy Virgin Mary,” in which the artist smeared elephant dung over his depiction of a black Madonna.</p>
<p>“The Testament of Mary” stars Fiona Shaw, the Irish actress best know for her cinematic role as Harry Potter’s aunt Petunia. The play is directed by British director Deborah Warner, who has a long-term collaborative relationship with Shaw, and is based on the 2012 book by Irish novelist Colm Toibin.</p>
<p>Now here’s the back story (which somehow didn&#8217;t make it into the reviews published by USA Today, EW or the Times):</p>
<p>Actress Shaw is a lesbian. She had a relationship with actress Saffron Burrows, who played Shaw’s lover in the British production of “The PowerBook,” a play based on the novel of the same name by Jeanette Winterson, the lesbian partner of director Warner.</p>
<p>Oh, what an incestuous web they weave.</p>
<p>Then there’s Toibin. He is a homosexual and has written about gay sex in several of his novels. He is, perhaps, most notorious for his public defense of fellow Irish writer Desmond Hogan, who in 2008 confessed to a charge aggravated sexual assault against an underage boy.</p>
<p>During Hogan’s trial, Toibin asked the court to be lenient with the pedophile because he is “a writer of immense power and importance.”</p>
<p>These are the un-worthies – Shaw, Warner and Toibin – that have brought “The Testament of Mary” to the Broadway stage. And their depravity, their decidedly un-Christian worldview is on full display.</p>
<p>Indeed, Shaw’s Mary bears no resemblance to the blessed virgin who appears in Gospel accounts. The actress’ bizarro Mary converses with the audience while dragging on a cigarette and sipping on a bottle of hooch.</p>
<p>She confides that Her son, Jesus, is not the savior He’s made out to be. She hints that His conception was not as immaculate as advertised. She dismisses as some sort of joke all “the high-flown talk” about miracles her son supposedly performed. She considers His disciples “a group of misfits.”</p>
<p>Shaw concludes her portrayal of Mary, the mother of Christ, by stripping off her clothes and standing nude – that’s right – before her audience. That just might earn the actress the Tony Award the Times predicted.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2394/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2394/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2394&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/26/a-profane-virgin-mary-christians-wont-recognize/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/testament-of-mary1.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">BROADWAY PLAY, ‘THE TESTAMENTOF MARY,’ IS PROFOUNDLY OFFENSIVE TO CHRISTIANS. </media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>New Faith-Based Movie is a ‘Home Run’</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/20/new-faith-based-movie-is-a-home-run/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/20/new-faith-based-movie-is-a-home-run/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:52:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA['HOME RUN']]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CELEBRATE RECOVERY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FAITH-BASED PROGRAM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JOHN TOWNSEND]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MOVIE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SADDLEBACK CHURCH]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2388</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I heard a message this past week by John Townsend. Wikipedia identifies him as a leadership coach, organizational consultant, psychologist and best-selling author. The online encyclopedia neglected to mention that he’s also a man of God. In fact, Dr. Townsend is one of the nation’s foremost advocates of Christ-centered recovery from mental and emotional health [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2388&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2390" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 214px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/home-run.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2390" alt="'HOME RUN,' A FEEL-GOOD, FAITH-BASED FILM, OPENED YESETRDAY IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/home-run.jpg?w=660"   /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">&#8216;HOME RUN,&#8217; A FEEL-GOOD, FAITH-BASED FILM, OPENED YESTERDAY IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE.</p></div>
<p>I heard a message this past week by John Townsend. Wikipedia identifies him as a leadership coach, organizational consultant, psychologist and best-selling author. The online encyclopedia neglected to mention that he’s also a man of God.</p>
<p>In fact, Dr. Townsend is one of the nation’s foremost advocates of Christ-centered recovery from mental and emotional health issues. And he actually is a character in a new feel-good, faith-based motion picture, “Home Run,” which opened in theaters yesterday.</p>
<p>The faith-based production has been brought to the big screen by Provident Films, whose previous credits include “Fireproof,” the top-grossing independent film of 2008, and “Facing the Giants,” the surprise theatrical hit of 2006.</p>
<p>“Home Run” tells the fictional story of Cory Brand, a major league baseball All-Star, who’s off-the-field life is spiraling dangerously out of control.</p>
<p>After a DUI, and resultant suspension by his ball club, Cory reluctantly heeds his agent’s advice that he return to the small town where he grew up and enroll himself in an eight-week recovery program.</p>
<p>So Cory grudgingly enters the recovery program while also coaching the local youth baseball team (much against his will) to get the sign-off he needs – from Dr. Townsend – to be reinstated to his major league team.</p>
<p>To me, the most poignant scene in the movie is when Cory finds himself unable to beat his alcohol problem in his own strength. That’s when he surrenders himself to the Lord’s healing power.</p>
<p>In his message this past week, Dr. Townsend explained, “Will power is hugely over-rated.”</p>
<p>Our recovery truly begins, he continued, when we come to the end of ourselves (or “hit rock bottom,” or have a “moment of clarity” or however else we choose to describe it). What awaits us is God’s grace.</p>
<p>There was something else Dr. Townsend said that struck me. “Everyone needs recovery,” he said. Not just alcoholics. Not just drug addicts. But everyone. Because every one of us has been damaged in some way or another.</p>
<p>Indeed, that’s why Celebrate Recovery, the faith-based program that inspired the producers of “Home Run,” addresses a “wide variety of hurts, hang ups and harmful behaviors.”</p>
<p>That includes not only “dependency on alcohol or drugs,” but also “pornography, low self-esteem, need to control, depression, anger, co-dependency, depression, fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, perfectionism, broken relationships, and abuse.”</p>
<p>Celebrate Recovery was launched 20 years ago at Saddleback Church in Southern California and has since spread to some 19,000 churches.</p>
<p>There is no more effective recovery program in the world. And that is a testament, I believe, that our God truly is mighty to save.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2388/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2388/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2388&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/20/new-faith-based-movie-is-a-home-run/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/home-run.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">&#039;HOME RUN,&#039; A FEEL-GOOD, FAITH-BASED FILM, OPENED YESETRDAY IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Tiger Woods Fails to Prove Himself a &#8216;Better Man&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/13/tiger-woods-fails-to-show-himself-a-better-man/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/13/tiger-woods-fails-to-show-himself-a-better-man/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:39:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BUDDHA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GOLF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MASTERS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RULES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TIGER WOODS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2375</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I’m a huge Tiger Woods fan. That’s why it pains me that he continues to do damage to his once-nearly-pristine image. Having recently reclaimed his sport’s ranking as World No. 1 – as the Euros put it – Tiger flew this week to Augusta, Georgia as the favorite to win the Masters. He acquitted himself [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2375&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2377" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tiger-masters.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2377" alt="'WHAT PROFIT IS IT TO MAN IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSES HIS OWN SOUL?'" src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tiger-masters.jpg?w=300&#038;h=180" width="300" height="180" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">&#8216;WHAT PROFIT IS IT TO A MAN IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSES HIS OWN SOUL?&#8217;</p></div>
<p>I’m a huge Tiger Woods fan. That’s why it pains me that he continues to do damage to his once-nearly-pristine image.</p>
<p>Having recently reclaimed his sport’s ranking as World No. 1 – as the Euros put it – Tiger flew this week to Augusta, Georgia as the favorite to win the Masters.</p>
<p>He acquitted himself rather well the tourney’s first two days, save for a mishap yesterday on the 15th hole. He hit an approach shot to the green that, as bad luck would have it, ricocheted off the flag pole and careened into the creek.</p>
<p>After taking a “drop” – which entailed a one stroke penalty – Tiger hit his next shot on the green, sank the putt and rocked on to the next hole. As it turns out, the world’s most famous golfer made an improper drop, for which he should have been penalized another two strokes.</p>
<p>Tiger signed his scorecard without including the two penalty strokes and left the golf course. This morning he learned of his error, which meant he signed his Friday scorecard incorrectly.</p>
<p>In every case I’ve ever heard, a golfer who signs an incorrect scorecard in tournament play is disqualified. Yet, the green jacketed powers-that-be at Augusta National somehow found a way <i>not</i> to disqualify Tiger.</p>
<p>And even though I had looked forward this weekend to seeing whether my favorite golfer could win the fifth Master’s championship of his career, I think Augusta’s green jackets made the absolute wrong decision.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the Bible advises “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”</p>
<p>I believe the Almighty, in His infinite grace, gave Tiger an opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of many of those who have not gotten past his serial adultery with who knows how many harlots, which defiled his marriage and left a lasting scar upon his faithful wife, the mother of his two beautiful children.</p>
<p>Oh, how I hoped that Tiger would say that, even though Augusta’s powers-that-be had not disqualified him for his rule-breaking – had tempted him with preferential treatment – he had decided to disqualify himself. Even though doing so would cost him the Masters.</p>
<p>But Tiger did not enter today through the narrow gate, of which the Word of God speaks. He chose the wide gate, the broad way that leads to destruction.</p>
<p>In 2010, Tiger delivered a mea culpa in which he told a national television audience, “I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior.” He promised “to be a better man.” And he confided he was returning to the Buddhist faith of his youth, which his Thai mother instilled in him.</p>
<p>Well, the events of today suggest that Tiger is not the better man he promised to be. And I am persuaded he will remain a lost soul until, hopefully, he comes to Jesus.</p>
<p>For when a man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things are passed away. All things become new.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2375/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2375/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2375&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/13/tiger-woods-fails-to-show-himself-a-better-man/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tiger-masters.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">&#039;WHAT PROFIT IS IT TO MAN IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSES HIS OWN SOUL?&#039;</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Biden Mourns Babies Killed By Guns, But Not Abortion</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/11/biden-mourns-babies-killed-by-guns-but-not-abortion/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/11/biden-mourns-babies-killed-by-guns-but-not-abortion/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:03:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ABORTION]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GUN CONTROL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JAYNE MITCHELL-WERBRICH]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JAYNE VASIKONIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JOE BIDEN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NEWTOWN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PLANNED PARENTHOOD]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2371</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Joe Biden’s heart bleeds for defenseless babies. The Vice President told us so last month, while advocating a ban on assault weapons. “Think about Newtown,” said Biden, and “those 20 beautiful babies” that were shot and killed by Adam Lanza. “Think about how many of these children…may be alive today,” he said, if only the [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2371&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2373" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/joe-biden.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2373" alt="JOE BIDEN CONSIDERS THE LIVES OF BABIES KILLED BY ABORTIONISTS LESS WORTHY OF GRIEF THAN THOSE KILLED BY A CRAZED GUNMAN." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/joe-biden.jpg?w=300&#038;h=168" width="300" height="168" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">JOE BIDEN CONSIDERS THE LIVES OF BABIES KILLED BY ABORTIONISTS LESS WORTHY OF GRIEF THAN THOSE KILLED BY A CRAZED GUNMAN.</p></div>
<p>Joe Biden’s heart bleeds for defenseless babies. The Vice President told us so last month, while advocating a ban on assault weapons.</p>
<p>“Think about Newtown,” said Biden, and “those 20 beautiful babies” that were shot and killed by Adam Lanza. “Think about how many of these children…may be alive today,” he said, if only the baby-killer hadn’t possessed a Bushmaster.</p>
<p>Well, I might think the Veep’s lamentations for Newtown’s tender-aged victims genuine if I heard him express similar grief for other beautiful babies that have been so remorselessly killed.</p>
<p>Like those killed at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Biden’s home state of Delaware, under conditions so horrifying – even for an abortion clinic – that two former nurses decided this week to blow the whistle.</p>
<p>Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich and Joyce Vasikonis attested that the clinic, located in Wilmington, operated what they call a meat-market style of assembly-line abortions. In a rush to get expectant mothers in and out as quickly as possible, the nurses said, the clinic left operating tables a bloody mess.</p>
<p>“It’s not washed down,” said Werbrich. “It’s not even cleaned off. It has bloody drainage on it.”</p>
<p>The Planned Parenthood abortion doctors “were using instruments on patients,” said Vasikonis, “that were not sterile.”</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t find that surprising. If a physician feels perfectly sanguine about violating his or her Hippocratic oath to “do no harm” by taking the life of a pre-born baby, why would they care if they commit their infanticide in unsanitary conditions?</p>
<p>So what if the expectant mother dies along with her aborted baby?</p>
<p>That’s the kind of Godless thinking that informed the mindset of the Planned Parenthood abortionists. They are baby killers. And they are no less reprehensible than Lanza, and probably even more so.</p>
<p>Indeed, the crazed Newtown shooter took the lives of 20 children. Meanwhile, the Planned Parenthood abortion doctors, who are considered perfectly sane, take the lives of at least 20 babies <i>every</i> day but Sunday.</p>
<p>So why hasn’t Joe Biden expressed outrage over the babies killed in his very own home state? Why hasn’t he issued a call for abortion control (like he has for gun control)?</p>
<p>Because the veep is a duplicitous politician. And he has sold his soul to the abortion industry.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2371/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2371/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2371&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/11/biden-mourns-babies-killed-by-guns-but-not-abortion/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/joe-biden.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">JOE BIDEN CONSIDERS THE LIVES OF BABIES KILLED BY ABORTIONISTS LESS WORTHY OF GRIEF THAN THOSE KILLED BY A CRAZED GUNMAN.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Death and Life of Matthew Warren</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/07/the-death-and-life-of-matthew-warren/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/07/the-death-and-life-of-matthew-warren/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:23:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[EULOGY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MATTHEW WARREN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MENTAL ILLNESS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RICK WARREN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SADDLEBACK CHURCH]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SUICIDE]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2355</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My wife and I received the heartbreaking email yesterday morning from Rick Warren, our pastor at Saddleback Church in Southern California: His youngest son, Matthew went  to be with the Lord. Had the 27-year-old died in a car accident – like Christopher Laurie, 33-year-old son of Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Church in Southern Cal, [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2355&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2357" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/warren-family.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2357" alt="PASTOR RICK WARREN AND FAMILY. SON MATTHEW, WHO WENT TO BE WITH THE LORD YESTERDAY, IS PICTURED BOTTOM LEFT." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/warren-family.jpg?w=300&#038;h=201" width="300" height="201" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">PASTOR RICK WARREN AND FAMILY. SON MATTHEW, WHO WENT TO BE WITH THE LORD YESTERDAY, IS PICTURED BOTTOM LEFT.</p></div>
<p>My wife and I received the heartbreaking email yesterday morning from Rick Warren, our pastor at Saddleback Church in Southern California: His youngest son, Matthew went  to be with the Lord.</p>
<p>Had the 27-year-old died in a car accident – like Christopher Laurie, 33-year-old son of Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Church in Southern Cal, who lost his life in 2008 – we might have lamented the vicissitudes of life.</p>
<p>Or had the young man been murdered – like Ryan Armstrong, 22-year-old son of Pastor Ron Armstrong of Cornerstone Church in SoCal (which my wife and I previously attended) – we might have decried the evil of this world.</p>
<p>But Mathew died from his own hand.</p>
<p>And we’re still trying to process how the young man who grew up in a most loving home,  who faithfully attended the church his father founded, who celebrated Easter this past Sunday along with the rest of the Saddleback family, decided yesterday his young life was no longer worth living.</p>
<p>Pastor Rick’s email attested that Matthew “was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man. He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He’d then make a beeline to that person to engage and encourage them.”</p>
<p>Yet, Matthew also was a tortured soul. He struggled from birth, Pastor Rick confided, “with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts.” So it was that after a fun Friday evening with his parents, the young man yesterday finally succumbed to his inner demons.</p>
<p>What particularly troubled was, though Pastor Rick and his longsuffering wife Kay tried everything to help their son, including “America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing,” Matthew’s mental illness never subsided.</p>
<p>“I’ll never forget,” Pastor Rick recalled, “many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said, ‘Dad, I know I’m going to heaven. Why can’t I just die and end this pain?’”</p>
<p>After reading that, it made me wonder: If Pastor Rick truly has been anointed by the Most High – and I believe he has – yet his prayers for healing for his son Matthew went for naught, what hope have members of the Saddleback family who are praying for miracles of their own?</p>
<p>As I contemplated that question, I suddenly was filled with the Holy Spirit, which reminded me of the story of Horatio Spafford, a Chicago barrister and businessman, who was in many respects a latter day Job.</p>
<p>In 1871, Spafford’s only son died of pneumonia at four years old. Two years later, he booked his wife Anna and his four daughters to Europe aboard the SS Ville du Havre, which sank while crossing the Atlantic. Spafford’s wife survived, but all four of his daughters perished.</p>
<p>Spafford departed to meet his grieving wife. When his ship passed near the spot where his daughters lost their lives, he suddenly was inspired to write the words that would become a famous hymn:</p>
<p><i>When peace like a river, attendeth my way,</i></p>
<p><i>When sorrows like sea billows roll;</i></p>
<p><i>Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,</i></p>
<p><i>It is well, it is well, with my soul.</i></p>
<p>I do not know why Pastor Rick’s prayers for healing for his son Matthew went unanswered. I do not know why the prayers of many, many other parents for their beloved children go unanswered.</p>
<p>But, as Christ followers, we are to trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding. And, in so doing, we are able to declare, even in the face of personal tragedy, it is well with our souls.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2355/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2355/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2355&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/07/the-death-and-life-of-matthew-warren/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/warren-family.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">PASTOR RICK WARREN AND FAMILY. SON MATTHEW, WHO WENT TO BE WITH THE LORD YESTERDAY, IS PICTURED BOTTOM LEFT.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Mercy For Killer Who Says He Didn’t Mean To?</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/03/mercy-for-killer-who-says-he-didnt-mean-to/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/03/mercy-for-killer-who-says-he-didnt-mean-to/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:04:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AUTUMN CARTER]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CLEMENCY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DEATH PENALTY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OHIO PAROLE BOARD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STEVEN SMITH]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2349</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Autumn Carter, a Mansfield, Ohio girl, was raped and killed in 1998. She was six-months old (that’s right). Her convicted killer, Steven Smith, has a May 1 date with the executioner. Yesterday, he appeared before the Ohio Parole Board, where he pleaded for mercy. Smith, 31 years old at the time he took baby Autumn’s [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2349&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2351" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 260px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/steven-smith.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2351" alt="STEVEN SMITH IS AN UNREPENTANT KILLER. HE DESERVES THE DEATH PENALTY." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/steven-smith.jpg?w=660"   /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">STEVEN SMITH IS AN UNREPENTANT KILLER. HE DESERVES THE DEATH PENALTY.</p></div>
<p>Autumn Carter, a Mansfield, Ohio girl, was raped and killed in 1998. She was six-months old (that’s right).</p>
<p>Her convicted killer, Steven Smith, has a May 1 date with the executioner. Yesterday, he appeared before the Ohio Parole Board, where he pleaded for mercy.</p>
<p>Smith, 31 years old at the time he took baby Autumn’s life, has not repented his evil. He says his life should be spared because he really didn’t mean to kill the infant. He just wanted to have sex with her.</p>
<p>The convicted killer’s public defenders, Joseph Wilhelm and Tyson Fleming, had his back yesterday at his clemency hearing. They argued that, under Ohio law, a death sentence requires intent to kill the victim.</p>
<p>“The evidence suggests that Autumn’s death was a horrible accident,” Mssrs. Wilhelm and Fleming asserted. “Despite the shocking nature of this crime, Steve’s death sentence should be commuted because genuine doubts exist whether he even committed a capital offense.”</p>
<p>Accident? I don’t think so. Under Satanic influence? No doubt.</p>
<p>Baby Autumn was no random victim (not that it makes any difference). She was the daughter of Smith’s girlfriend (that&#8217;s right), Kesha Frye. When mom didn’t have sex with him on the night of his crime – probably because Smith was wasted on beer – he took revenge on her by sexually assaulting her baby girl.</p>
<p>At Smith’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence that his sexual assault lasted as long as 30 minutes.</p>
<p>“Expert” witnesses who testified in the killer’s defense suggested that Baby Autumn probably didn’t suffer the entire 30 minutes; that Smith accidentally suffocated the six-month old within three to five minutes while he lay on top of her.</p>
<p>“Steve is basically a decent person,” Wilhelm, his public defender, told the Ohio Parole Board yesterday. The convicted killer “got into trouble because of his alcohol dependence,” he added.</p>
<p>The Parole Board, which will issue its recommendation on Smith’s clemency petition to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has the final say on whether Smith dies or lives, wasn’t too sympathetic to the killer.</p>
<p>“Here’s what I take issue with,” said board member Kathleen Kovach, “People say Mr. Smith cared for Autumn and he took great care of her. No, he didn’t.”</p>
<p>As a Christ follower, I don’t believe anyone is beyond redemption. Not even someone, like Smith, who has committed a most unspeakable crime.</p>
<p>But there is no redemption, no salvation for unrepentant sinners, like Smith, the child molester, the baby killer.</p>
<p>He deserves what’s coming to him May 1.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2349/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2349/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2349&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/04/03/mercy-for-killer-who-says-he-didnt-mean-to/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/steven-smith.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">STEVEN SMITH IS AN UNREPENTANT KILLER. HE DESERVES THE DEATH PENALTY.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Atheist Taunts Christians With ‘Easter Challenge’</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/31/atheist-taunts-christians-with-easter-challenge/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/31/atheist-taunts-christians-with-easter-challenge/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:40:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ATHEISTS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EASTER]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FREEDOM FROM RELGION FOUNDATION]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GOSPELS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HISTORICAL JESUS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NORMAN BARKER]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[theology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2344</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Norman Barker performed a duet with Judy Garland in the 1948 film “Easter Parade.” His son, Dan, became a pastor, before falling away from his Christian faith in 1984. In 1990, Dan Barker, by then a devout atheist, published an essay, which he titled “An Easter Challenge For Christians.” And he has reissued his transparent [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2344&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2346" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/he-is-risen.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2346" alt="THE FRIGHTENED DISCIPLES OF JESUS WERE SUDDENLY EMBOLDENED THREE DAYS AFTER HIS CRUCIFIXION." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/he-is-risen.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225" width="300" height="225" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">THE FRIGHTENED DISCIPLES OF JESUS WERE SUDDENLY EMBOLDENED THREE DAYS AFTER HIS CRUCIFIXION.</p></div>
<p>Norman Barker performed a duet with Judy Garland in the 1948 film “Easter Parade.” His son, Dan, became a pastor, before falling away from his Christian faith in 1984.</p>
<p>In 1990, Dan Barker, by then a devout atheist, published an essay, which he titled “An Easter Challenge For Christians.” And he has reissued his transparent attack on Easter every year since then.</p>
<p>This year, his challenge appears on a blog hosted by the so-called Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist hate group, based in Madison, Wisconsin, for which Barker and his wife serve as co-presidents.</p>
<p>In his anti-Easter essay, Barker writes, “My straightforward request is merely that Christians tell me exactly what happened on the day their most important doctrine was born.”</p>
<p>The atheist suggests that, since he first issued his challenge nearly a quarter-century ago, only an Assemblies of God pastor and Lutheran grad has ever taken him up on it. And neither ultimately got back to him.</p>
<p>But here’s the rest of the story that Barker, the deceiver, conveniently ignores: His challenge is not “straightforward.” Indeed, “The important condition of the challenge,” he writes, “is that not one single biblical detail be omitted.”</p>
<p>Of course, such trickeration is to be expected from those who shake their fists at God; who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ; who disbelieve that He conquered the grave.</p>
<p>Barker seeks to cast doubt upon the Easter story by deconstructing every jot and tittle of the four Gospel accounts of the Easter story, as well as the briefer accounts that appear in the book of Acts and I Corinthians.</p>
<p>He maintains that any putative discrepancy in the Biblical accounts, any apparent inconsistency in Biblical detail (however small, like the matter of whether visitors to Christ’s empty tomb on Easter morning saw one angel or two), is prima facie evidence that the resurrection was a fiction.</p>
<p>But that’s an absurd proposition. Sure there are discrepancies in the Gospel accounts. But no more than those to be found in reading the various biographies of, say, Abraham Lincoln. Does Barker question whether Lincoln truly served as president of the United States?</p>
<p>And while the atheist makes the case that the Gospel accounts of Easter were ahistoric, they actually were corroborated by the first century Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.</p>
<p>In the Testimonium Flavianum, Josephus writes about “Jesus, a wise man” who was “a doer of wonderful works.” He attests that Jesus was condemned to the cross and that he appeared “alive again the third day.”</p>
<p>Barker can dispute Josephus’ historic account of the Easter story, as he questions the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But there is no dispute, no question that something miraculous happened on the first Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>For the frightened disciples who abandoned Jesus on the night he was arrested, who hid themselves away when he was crucified, were suddenly emboldened three days after Christ’s death.</p>
<p>In His name, they set out to make disciples of all nations. And it is no coincidence that, two thousand years later, Christianity is the world’s dominant faith.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2344/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2344/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2344&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/31/atheist-taunts-christians-with-easter-challenge/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>14</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/he-is-risen.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">THE FRIGHTENED DISCIPLES OF JESUS WERE SUDDENLY EMBOLDENED THREE DAYS AFTER HIS CRUCIFIXION.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Pastor Who Should Own Up to Her Past</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/29/a-pastor-who-should-own-up-to-her-past/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/29/a-pastor-who-should-own-up-to-her-past/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:26:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Holidays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ADULT ENTERTAINMENT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CHURCH]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EASTER]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LOS ANGELES UNIVERSITY CATHEDRAL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MARIE CLAIRE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MELISSA SCOTT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TELEVANGELIST]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2334</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While channel surfing recently during the wee hours of the morning, I happened upon the weekly telecast of Melissa Scott, pastor of a Glendale, California church. My instinct was to keep on surfing (I still struggle with the idea of female “pastors,” for in spiritual matters, the Word of God declares, “I do not permit [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2334&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2336" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pastor-melissa-scott.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2336" alt="PASTOR MELISSA SCOTT HAS A POWERFUL STORY OF REDEMPTION TO SHARE." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pastor-melissa-scott.jpg?w=300&#038;h=300" width="300" height="300" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">PASTOR MELISSA SCOTT HAS A POWERFUL STORY OF REDEMPTION TO SHARE. AND THIS EASTER IS THE PERFECT OCCASION TO DO SO.</p></div>
<p>While channel surfing recently during the wee hours of the morning, I happened upon the weekly telecast of Melissa Scott, pastor of a Glendale, California church.</p>
<p>My instinct was to keep on surfing (I still struggle with the idea of female “pastors,” for in spiritual matters, the Word of God declares, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man”).</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I wanted to hear what <i>Sister</i> Melissa (my honorific for her) had to say. So I watched her telecast and found her rather conversant on the Bible. Scholarly even.</p>
<p>I DVRed a couple more of her televised messages – I’m not going to use the term “sermons,” for the previously stated reason – and came away with the same, generally favorable, impression.</p>
<p>So I did little research on Sister Melissa.</p>
<p>I learned that she was born in Rome; eventually moved to the United States; joined Los Angeles University Cathedral (headed by Dr. Gene “Doc” Scott, the “shock jock of televangelism”); married Scott in 2000 (he was 70, she was 32); and took over his ministry when he died in 2005.</p>
<p>And, oh yes, she used to be a porn star known as Barbie Bridges.</p>
<p>At least that’s the allegation made by Marie Claire, in an expose the magazine published in 2009. It recounted that, after assuming the pulpit formerly held by her late husband, after delivering her very first message, Easter cards featuring lurid snapshots of Bridges were anonymously mailed to members of the University Cathedral congregation.</p>
<p>Sister Melissa denied she and Bridges, the porn star, were one in the same. She attributed the similarity of their likenesses to an expert Photoshop job.</p>
<p>In an interview with Marie Claire – one of the rare occasions she’s actually spoken with journalists – she told the magazine, “I’ve seen a good portion of the stuff on the Internet, and honestly, I almost have to laugh at it.” She also stated, unequivocally, “I was never an actress in a pornographic movie.”</p>
<p>Marie Claire didn’t buy it. It maintained that Sister Melissa’s past in adult entertainment was confirmed by several acquaintances of hers.</p>
<p>What convinced me that the magazine printed the truth is the fact – which Sister Melissa does not dispute – that she was previously married to Paul Pastore, whom she divorced before marrying Doc Scott.</p>
<p>Pastore worked for an exotic dancing agency, according to the magazine, before launching a porn distribution outfit called Barbie Bridges Enterprises. Marie Claire reached him at his West Hollywood office where he was still working in adult entertainment. If Sister Melissa doesn’t want to acknowledge her past, he told the magazine, “that’s fine with me.”</p>
<p>Well, Sister Melissa has come full circle since she followed her late husband, Doc Scott, into the pulpit at University Cathedral; since the damning Easter cards exposing her former life were anonymously mailed to her congregation.</p>
<p>Instead of running away from her past as an adult entertainer, Sister Melissa should embrace it this Easter holiday. She should stand before her congregation this Sunday and tell them, truthfully, she once was lost, and now she’s found.</p>
<p>She should tell them the blood shed on Calvary was a ransom for poor sinners like her, like them, like all of us. And she should tell them that, because Christ rose on Easter Sunday, having conquered the grave, our sin debt has been paid to the Father.</p>
<p>Sister Melissa has a powerful story of redemption to share. Like her, all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But the Good News is that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.</p>
<p>There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – be it on a holiday card, on the Internet, in a magazine or anywhere else.</p>
<p>For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2334/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2334/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2334&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/29/a-pastor-who-should-own-up-to-her-past/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pastor-melissa-scott.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">PASTOR MELISSA SCOTT HAS A POWERFUL STORY OF REDEMPTION TO SHARE.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The End is Near For Marriage As We Know It</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/26/the-end-is-near-for-marriage-as-we-know-it/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/26/the-end-is-near-for-marriage-as-we-know-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:07:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[SAME-SEX MARRIAGE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CONSTITUTION]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DAVID EPSTEIN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[INCEST]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KENNETH PINYAN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KODY BROWN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marriage equality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[POLYGAMY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SUPREME COURT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ZOOPHILIA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2326</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a landmark case that seeks to establish “marriage equality” as the law of the land, my thoughts turned to Kody Brown, David Epstein and Kenneth Pinyan. Brown, who appears with his four brides and 17 children in the TLC reality show “Sister Wives,” faces prosecution for [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2326&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2328" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/marriage-equality.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2328" alt="IF HOMOSEXUALS CAN MARRY, WHY NOT POLYGAMISTS, CONSENTING INCESTUOUS ADULTS, OR EVEN ZOOPHILES AND THEIR 'ANIMAL PARTNERS'." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/marriage-equality.jpg?w=660"   /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">IF HOMOSEXUALS CAN MARRY, WHY NOT POLYGAMISTS, CONSENTING INCESTUOUS ADULTS, OR EVEN ZOOPHILES AND THEIR &#8216;ANIMAL PARTNERS&#8217;?</p></div>
<p>As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a landmark case that seeks to establish “marriage equality” as the law of the land, my thoughts turned to Kody Brown, David Epstein and Kenneth Pinyan.</p>
<p>Brown, who appears with his four brides and 17 children in the TLC reality show “Sister Wives,” faces prosecution for violating Utah’s ban on polygamy.</p>
<p>Epstein, a Columbia University political science professor, was charged last year with one count of incest for his three-year consensual sexual relationship with his 24-year-old daughter.</p>
<p>And Pinyan, the subject of a documentary film, “Zoo,” which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival, died after having sex with an Arabian stallion at a Washington state horse farm.</p>
<p>If the nation’s highest court declares that same-sex marriage is protected – somehow – by the Constitution, it follows that polygamous marriage, incestuous marriage and – who knows? – maybe even interspecies marriage must be similarly countenanced under the law.</p>
<p>Because if justices embrace a secularist, laissez faire approach to marriage, if they accept the premise President Obama tweeted yesterday – “Every American should be able to marry the person they love” – the legal takeaway will be “anything goes.”</p>
<p>If a man loves four different women, like Brown, have a five-way marriage. If a man has the hots for his daughter, like Epstein, marry her. If a man is smitten with an Arabian horse, like Pinyan, who are we to say they shouldn’t be wed?</p>
<p>That sounds absurd to those of us who continue to believe in “holy” – as opposed to unholy – matrimony. But know that there are defenders of even the most abberant “relationships.”</p>
<p>Indeed, Jenny Edwards, who runs Help for Horses, an organization that nurses abused and abandoned equines, arrived alongside police at the farm where Pinyan died after his sexual encounter with the stallion.</p>
<p>In “Zoo,” the documentary, she says she had a change of heart about man-horse relations. She came to appreciate zoophiles, like Pinyan, acknowledging, “the love and care they give their animal partners.”</p>
<p>As to interspecies sex? “I’m right at the edge of being able to understand it,” she said.</p>
<p>Similarly, Matthew Galluzzo, attorney for Epstein, said there is nothing wrong with incestuous sex between consenting adults. “It’s okay for homosexuals to do whatever they want to do in their own home,” he argued. “How is this so different?”</p>
<p>Brown makes his own same case.  Let everyone, he said, including gays, including polygamists, including others in &#8220;noncoventional&#8221; relationships, “Choose and define who you marry. Choose and define who you love.”</p>
<p>If same-sex marriage receives the blessing of the Supreme Court, does anyone doubt that polygamists, incestuous adults, and – who knows? – maybe even zoophiles will be next to demand “marriage equality?”</p>
<p>For that is the unGodly path down which our fallen society is heading.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2326/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2326/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2326&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/26/the-end-is-near-for-marriage-as-we-know-it/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/marriage-equality.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">IF HOMOSEXUALS CAN MARRY, WHY NOT POLYGAMISTS, CONSENTING INCESTUOUS ADULTS, OR EVEN ZOOPHILES AND THEIR &#039;ANIMAL PARTNERS&#039;.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Black Christians Silent on Philly Abortion Atrocities</title>
		<link>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/22/black-christians-silent-on-philly-abortion-atrocities/</link>
		<comments>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/22/black-christians-silent-on-philly-abortion-atrocities/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:21:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>JP</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ABORTION]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ABORTION CLINIC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ADRIENNE MOTON]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[current-events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KERMIT GOSNELL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LYNCHING]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[michelle obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PHILADELPHIA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[slaughter of innocents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TRIAL]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://christiandiarist.com/?p=2318</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Adrienne Moton wept this week as she recounted her role in the mass murder of at least 10 pre-born babies. The West Philadelphia medical assistant testified during the capital murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, owner of an abortion clinic in the supposed “City of Brotherly Love.” Moton told a jury that she snipped the [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2318&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_2320" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/gosnell-and-moton.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-2320" alt="THE LORD WILL HOLD GOSNELL AND MOTON ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS." src="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/gosnell-and-moton.jpg?w=660"   /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">THE LORD WILL SURELY HOLD GOSNELL AND MOTON ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS.</p></div>
<p>Adrienne Moton wept this week as she recounted her role in the mass murder of at least 10 pre-born babies.</p>
<p>The West Philadelphia medical assistant testified during the capital murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, owner of an abortion clinic in the supposed “City of Brotherly Love.”</p>
<p>Moton told a jury that she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies, a heinous procedure even by abortion standards. She said she was ordered to do so by Gosnell, the abortion-rights equivalent of Josef Mengele.</p>
<p>She also recalled taking a cell phone snapshot of one of the baby murder victims left in her work area. She estimated that the pre-born was nearly 30 weeks old. She was certain he could have survived, given his size and pinkish color.</p>
<p>She remembered her boss, Gosnell, joking that the baby boy was so big, he could have walked to the bus stop.</p>
<p>Moton has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, for which she will spend the next 20 to 40 years in prison. It stands to reason that, if Gosnell’s medical assistant has been sentenced to spend much of the rest of her life behind bars, the abortionist himself deserves nothing less than the death penalty.</p>
<p>What particularly outrages about Gosnell’s trial is that his defense lawyer dared to assert that the prosecution of his client, who is black, amounted to “a lynching”</p>
<p>Of course, in so saying, the lawyer ignored the fact that almost all of the babies slaughtered by Gosnell’s clinic were black.</p>
<p>That’s the dirty little secret about abortion that liberal black politicians (from President Obama to the 42-member Congressional Black Caucus to the thousands of state and local black elected officials throughout the country) fail to acknowledge: That pre-born black babies are disproportionate victims of abortion.</p>
<p>Indeed, while Michelle Obama took time last month to attend the funeral for Hadiyah Pendleton, the Chicago gun violence victim, while her husband a year ago this month mourned the death of Trayvon Martin (“If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon,” said the father-in-chief), neither has ever uttered a discouraging word about the hundreds of thousands of black pre-borns aborted each year.</p>
<p>And what of Rep. Chaka Fattah, the black lawmaker in whose congressional district Gosnell’s abortion clinic was located? He has been absolutely mute about the atrocities committed by Gosnell, Philly’s latter day “Angel of Death.”</p>
<p>Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman in whose honor a statue stands not far from the White House, is credited with the declaration, “All that is necessary evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”</p>
<p>The year by year massacre of black babies will continue apace until true Christ followers in the black community stand up for the unborn.</p>
<br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2318/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/christiandiarist.wordpress.com/2318/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=christiandiarist.com&#038;blog=8744601&#038;post=2318&#038;subd=christiandiarist&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://christiandiarist.com/2013/03/22/black-christians-silent-on-philly-abortion-atrocities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/90d5c3321ecad3b1a7548b794a3714f4?s=96&#38;d=identicon&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">josperkins</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://christiandiarist.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/gosnell-and-moton.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">THE LORD WILL HOLD GOSNELL AND MOTON ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS.</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
