Friday, December 24, 2010

Pray for Christians in India and Iraq

Christians in both India and Iraq are under threat of attack this Christmas by Hindu radicals in Oriss, India and al-Qaeda in Iraq (respectively). Hindu radicals are having a gathering on Christmas Day this year. The last gathering on Christmas 2007 resulted in a mass wave of violence against Christians. In Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq has vowed to purge Christians from the country. Please pray for the safety of our Christian brothers and sisters and the conversion of Muslims who are so full of hate.

Friday, December 17, 2010

The Lord of the Small Lyrics

Here is the wonderful poem by Johanna Anderson...

The Lord of the Small

Praise to the Lord of the Small Broken Things,
Who Sees the Poor Sparrow That cannot take wing.
Who loves the lame child and the wretch in the street
who comforts their sorrows and washes their feet.

...Praise to the lord of the faint and afraid
who girds them with courage and lends them his aid,
he pours out his spirit on vessels so weak,
that the timid can serve and the silent can speak.

Praise to the lord of the frail and the ill
who heals their afflictions or carries them till,
they leave this tired frame and to paradise fly.
to never be sick and never to die.

Praise him, O Praise Him All ye who live
who've been given so much and can so little give
our frail lisping praise God will never Despise.
He Sees His Dear Children Through Mercy Filled Eyes!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Take a Deep Breath, Calm Your Spirit and Watch this...

An old friend's wife wrote a poem that a composer set to music. My friend, Bill Anderson, is an economics professor and blogger on economics and law. His wife, Johanna, is a counselor with a heart for the forgotten and broken. Her poem is "Lord of the Small." The composer is Dan Forrest. Enjoy.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

So Much for Twitter

Update: Apparently these spammers are actually malware distributors masquerading as porn spammers. While there's something deliciously ironic about someone clicking on a link for a porn video and instead downloading a virus, I have no toleration for having inappropriate photos attached to my account. Twitter either does not have the technology or the will to keep this kind of garbage from coming to my account (as Facebook is able). *End of update*

I'm bringing my brief experiment with Twitter to an end. Too few of anyone who knows me is on Twitter and a large amount of "followers" I receive are spammers with grossly inappropriate profile pics. I've gotten tired of blocking people. Within a few hours I'll be shutting down my Twitter account. See you on this blog and on Facebook.

-Travis

Friday, December 3, 2010

Should We Beat Our Wives "Lightly"?

In the Western world the Koranic injunction for husbands to beat their wives seems to be a constant source of embarrassment for those trying to explain Islam to a secular or Christian audience. The way the force of this injunction is muted is to a) argue that Mohammad really loved women and treated them well and b) that "beat them" means "beat them lightly only if it is necessary" (Sura 4:34). Now, anyone who knows me and knows my family knows how well a "light beating" would go over with my missus - the next visitor I'd have would be the coroner. But, that aside, does the Koran really tell husbands to "beat lightly"?

In a word, no. The Koran simply tells husbands to beat their disobedient wives. In most translations of the Koran you find those words in parentheses, indicating that they are added. They are nowhere present in the Arabic text. They are also not implied in the meaning of the word translated thusly. The word in question, daraba, is used to indicate forceful violence. For a very readable article by a non-Muslim Arabic speaker, see here.

A quick YouTube search on "How to Beat Your Wife" will reveal many instructional videos on the practice (all from Islam). Here is one gem. Is it any wonder that it is reported that a woman married to a Muslim is TEN TIMES as likely to be murdered by her husband than a woman married to a non-Muslim in the UK?