Waterboarding is Torture

To listen to the news as of late, you would think civilization itself hinges on whether or not we should waterboard terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay. It is THE dominant theme in American politics right now and virtually every liberal media outlet is being employed to help bring the practice to an end.

"Why must it be stopped?" you ask. According to the thinking of some of our more open-minded friends, waterboarding is a brutal form of Nazi-like torture. It is, so we're told, a heinous act against our fellow man, and not only does irreversible harm to the mind and body, but it also enrages those who embrace the extremist Muslim viewpoint.

Ironically, many of the very people who want waterboarding brought to an end, endorse and promote the slaughter of innocent unborn children. It doesn't take an Einstein to see the incredible inconsistency of this kind of carnal thinking.

Waterboarding causes temporary discomfort at the very worst. It causes no long-term, life-threatening health effects. It is simply an effective means of elicting vital security information from those who would destroy our nation.

Abortion, on the other hand, causes excruciating pain and actually kills the unborn child! Do a simple Google search on your home computer and read, if you can, how untold millions of babies are mutilated and butchered within their mother's womb under the guise of "choice." Study the documentation and look carefully at those atrocious photographs. Those are PEOPLE being burnt, and ravaged, and dismembered-all in the name of freedom and so-called "human rights." Torture is an understatement!

How in the name of common sense can we say waterboarding a terrorist in prison is torture, but literally executing an unborn child is not ( Proverbs 6:15-17)?! My college Greek professor used to have a word for that: baloney!

- Mike Benson

Tune Up

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance," ( Matthew 3:8, ESV).

Frank reached over the top of the piano, and lifted the lid, exposing a mass of strings. Matt, the Smith's little son, looked on wide-eyed.

"Cool," he gave the little kid's ultimate compliment, "I didn't know all that was there!"

Frank tuned pianos for a living. He made appointments with people whose piano sounds had gone sour, whose notes sounded as musical as a ring of keys falling down a flight of stairs.

Even grownups were impressed when they saw the inner workings, the guts of a piano. No matter how polished the wood exterior, no matter how bright the ebony and ivory colored keys, it was what was inside that truly mattered!

Keys shouldn't be tuned in harmony with each other so much as given their true tone, their correct pitch, and only then would they be in harmony with each other.

Little Matt hadn't even been aware that a piano had an inside until a moment ago. It was, Frank reflected, a lot like people. We paste on cosmetics, we buff up the muscle tone, we shine and scrub our faces, acting as if we're completely unaware of the fact that people have insides, too.

And from time to time, people need to be re-tuned, their attitudes sweetened, their discordant habits eliminated. You can't make a symphony out of a piano when the catgut produces a cat's chorus!

Is it time for your life to be given a tune up?

- Stan Mitchell

Teachable Moments

Have you ever known a person who, regardless of the discussion, somehow manages to get back to his or her favorite subject? In my opinion, Acts 16 reveals just such a situation.

To set the background, recall how Luke recorded in Acts 12:19 that Herod killed the soldiers who had allowed Peter to escape. Under Roman law, a guard whose prisoner escaped would pay for it with the penalty due the prisoner. Peter was waiting his death.

In Acts 16, after the Philippian jailer was wakened by a powerful earthquake, we can only imagine the horror gripping his stomach to discover the prison doors standing open and chains laying loosely upon the ground. How many prisoners had been incarcerated? What range of punishments were they to receive? Who among his prisoners were awaiting death? His life was ruined.

In a stoic move, he resolved to save himself from the disgrace, pain and penalties he must bear. He drew his sword to kill himself.

Then amazing words pierced his ears. "Don't harm yourself. We are all here."

As the jailer stumbled into his dark prison, greatly outnumbered by prisoners now turned free, I think his mind was racing over how to save his own skin when he asked, "What must I do to be saved?" Was this man, who moments earlier stood prepared to kill himself, focused on his spiritual life? I doubt it.

Normally, Paul and Silas sought ways to speak about Jesus. But what could be simpler than answering the jailer's physical question with a spiritual answer? "Believe in Jesus and you'll be saved." The jailer wanted to know more. They taught him. His whole household responded by being baptized. Then this newly-saved jailer "was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God." ( Acts 16:34)

How good are we at taking everyday conversations and using them as springboards to talk about our God whom we serve? Paul and Silas did it. We can too. God's word bears fruit when his people share it.

- Barry Newton