What's Worth It?

From an interview with a Libyan fighter:

"We will fight for freedom to the last drop of our children's blood."

What in your life would be worth that level of commitment?

Teachable Moments in Civics 101

Togo wasn't officially a dictatorship when we lived there, but any country that has had the same president for more than 30 years might have a dictator.

Elections there were always hairy - hairy enough that UN task force sent in to monitor would throw up their hands in defeat and leave the country before election day saying, "Whatever happens, it's not our fault!"

We were often advised not to travel during elections in case of riots. And on the last occasion, our teammates were evacuated from the country for their own safety.

Any country that requires its citizens to vote and threatens them if they don't vote the right way has lost the meaning of democracy, or was never striving for it in the first place.

So, treasure your right to vote today. But also treasure your right to not vote. It's a sign of true freedom.

Happy Election Day!

Work of the Devil

A peddler came by the king's palace selling books. He had a particularly fine copy of a Bible. The printing was so straight, so true. It must have taken a lifetime to write such a perfect book.

The archbishop paid a call on the king.

"I've got a book I want to show you," he said. The archbishop produced a Bible, written with perfect hand, remarkably like the king's own copy. In fact, when compared, the two Bibles proved to be identical, with the same number of pages and the same words upon each page.

How could this be? How could two such beautiful books exist, exact replicas of each other? It would have taken a man's whole life to produce just one such book, but two? Impossible.

More copies of the same Bible started showing up in other places, in monasteries and libraries, in the homes of noblemen. Not having any other explanation, they concluded that this must be the work of the Devil.

Isn't it interesting that what might have been God's greatest evangelical tool of all time, the printing press, was scorned by church and state alike as the Devil's work? Has there ever been anything that has done so much for advancing the gospel, for offering knowledge and freedom to the impoverished and enslaved?

Magna Carta and the First Amendment

For those of you who would like to follow along in your history texts, we talked about the Magna Carta yesterday. For those of you who don't remember why this document was so important, here's a quick review and a current event that brings its importance to the forefront again.

The Magna Carta was put into effect in 1212 by a very reluctant King John (the bad guy of Robin Hood fame). It limited the power of king and offered rights to citizens, including the famous "no taxation without representation" law that was so important in our own revolution.

Fast forward 550 years.

Our founding fathers borrowed the ideas of the Magna Carta while drafting the Constitution and, especially, the Bill of Rights.

Pop quiz time.

Q: What rights are granted by the First Amendment?

A: Freedom of religion, speech and the press.

An e-acquaintance shared a struggle with me this week that hit on all three of these rights. She's marketing a book on homeschooling by offering a free seminar at her county library.

"FOUL!" cried the mayor of her town. "You can't host a homeschooling event at a public library because homeschooling takes monies from the public school system."

He cancelled the event.

A city mayor cancelled a homeschool event at a county library, reportedly because it stepped on the government's toes.

The event has since been "uncancelled" and the mayor has backed down from his alleged strong wording, but it gives me pause.

Freedom of speech, religion, and the press are messy things. But they were worth fighting for in 1212, in 1776, and they're still worth fighting for in 2007.