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© Merle Harton, Jr. | About | XML/RSS Saturday, October 30, 2004
Genocide in Iraq, etc. Yesterday The Lancet published a public health survey [.pdf] undertaken in Iraq in September 2004. The survey, "Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq," is the first science-based survey using cluster sample methodology after the invasion of Iraq, and the results confirm our outstanding fears about the ongoing conflict. "Making conservative assumptions," say the survey's authors, "we think that about 100,000 excess deaths or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq." And if that's not bad enough: "Most of the individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children."
Instead of praying for a winning presidential candidate on November 2, we ought to pray instead that God will today send his spirit to warm the frozen hearts of our leadership. As for American Christians who support the evil in Iraq, they should remove the wolf's clothing and stand before us as frauds, before other Christians in the US are devoured like sheep.
Thursday, October 28, 2004 Yesterday, in a special issue of the journal Nature Genetics, the published results of a survey of human variation as expressed in the human genome map conclude that race and ethnicity are no longer satisfactory categories for discerning differences among the human race. "It is impossible to look at people?s genetic code and deduce whether they are black, Caucasian or Asian, and there is no human population that fits the biological definition of a race, the study found."[1] Race and ethnicity are nothing more than culturally based forms of taxonomy. The study also concluded:
Now Christians have already known this. When Paul was in Athens, he declared to his audience in the Aereopagus that we are all one family, since from one man God populated the entire world.[2] As for the taxonomy of race and the superficial differences of ethnicity, Christ totally abolishes this. When writing to the Galatians, Paul reminded them that through Jesus Christ "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."[3] 1. See Times Online, Wednesday, October 27, 2004; article archived at Religion News Blog, October 27, 2004.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
The antiwar on terror. Here's a clever online video that tackles a contemporary antiwar theme à la The Corporation documentaryexcept that in this case the corporation is us. It takes a while for the film to load, especially over a dial-up connection, but I think you'll find that patience is rewarded. |
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