ARBCA General Assemby 2008

11th annual ARBCA G.A.

Sycamore Baptist Church, East Moline, Illinois

Me and my dad, John Giarrizzo

Building Tomorrow's Church

Reformed Baptist Young Adults Conference

information table

Me, James Tyler, and Sam Nocita

Grace Baptist Church, Papillion, Nebraska

Chad Bennett and Robin Eckhardt

Me and Nick Kennicot

In the Service of the King

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything substantial and worth reading. The reality of it is this: I have been consumed with work--both secular (how the mortgage gets paid!) and ministerial. Additionally, I think I have between 1 and 2 regular readers, so few people even notice any lapse in time between my posts (which is fine by me--less pressure to be consistent!).

While my occupational endeavors at the University of Phoenix always keep me busy, my work in ministry will wax and wane depending on what tasks the Lord has placed before me. Currently, He has put my hands to the plow in terms of church ministry: between teaching adult Sunday School (we just finished studying The Pilgrim's Progress; now beginning a series on "Church History"), co-leading our young adults group, singing in the choir, leading music on Sunday evenings, and most time-consumingly, coordinating a nation-wide conference for Reformed Baptist young adults (BTC), I am quite busy.

I just returned this week from the annual General Assembly of pastors and leaders from ARBCA churches in East Moline, Illinois. It was a terrific time, and I hope to give another post to this topic. But while I was there, surrounded by full-time church pastors, elders, deacons, missionaries, seminary students, seminary professors, and pastoral interns, I couldn't help but think about how wonderful church ministry truly is. To be honest with you, I wish I could serve Christ and His church full-time. It is a glorious thing (to borrow a now all-to-common expression) to be in the service of the King of kings! In one way, all Christians are to be in His service all the time--living godly lives in pursuit of holiness, encouraging the family of God, evangelizing the lost. But in another, more unique way, those in church leadership positions--pastors and elders--have the higher calling of serving the King by serving His people full time. Spending time with the pastors this last week was an exciting experience for me. Although I was raised in the home of a pastor and thoroughly enjoy learning from my dad, being in the company of dozens of men who have been called to the full-time Gospel ministry is a priviledged opportunity and one where the best thing I find to do is simply listen.

So I thank the Lord for the ministries with which He has blessed me. When I become overwhelmed with the stress of the load, He is gracious in reminding me of Who it is that I serve: a merciful Master, a loving Lord, the King of kings, my Jesus.

Thus I pray for the strength to give Him my all in all He's given me to do.

BTC 2008

“Helping young adults find their place within the body of Christ.”

BUILDING TOMORROW'S CHURCH

Reformed Baptist Young Adults Conference

August 8th - 11th, 2008
Prescott, Arizona

Featuring Pastor Bob Selph
as the keynote speaker

The goal of BTC is to help young people understand
the importance of the local church.
Our hope is that this younger generation of Reformed Baptist believers
will grow in love for Christ and His Church and will pursue
active involvement in the local congregation.

BTC is not a “single’s conference.”
This conference is geared towards all young adults,
18+ yrs old, regardless of marital status.

We hope to see the BTC conference become a regularly anticipated and attended conference
for young adults across the country for many years to come!
Soli Deo Gloria!

REGISTER TODAY
at
www.buildingtomorrowschurch.com

O Day of Rest and Gladness

O day of rest and gladness,
O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness,
Most beautiful, most bright:
On Thee, the high and lowly,
Through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy,
To the great God Triune.

On Thee, at the creation,
The light first had its birth;
On Thee, for our salvation,
Christ rose from depths of earth;
On Thee, our Lord, victorious,
The Spirit sent from heav’n,
And thus on Thee, most glorious,
A triple light was giv’n.

Thou art a port protected
From storms that round us rise;
A garden intersected
With streams of paradise;
Thou art a cooling fountain
In life’s dry dreary sand;
From Thee, like Pisgah’s mountain,
We view our promised land.

Today on weary nations
The heav’nly manna falls;
To holy convocations
The silver trumpet calls,
Where gospel light is glowing
With pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing,
With soul-refreshing streams.

New graces ever gaining
From this, our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining
To spirits of the blessed.
To Holy Ghost be praises,
To Father, and to Son;
The church her voice upraises
To Thee, blessed Three in One.

©1997 Christopher Miner Music.

Visit igracemusic for more quality hymns!

Finally, Hewitt Says It...

Maybe he has said this before, but today is the first time I have heard political commentator and radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt promote the "Republicans Unite" idea.

This morning, Hewitt acknowledged that his prized candidate, Mitt Romney, is facing an "up-hill battle" against Sen. McCain, and that if McCain becomes the GOP's go-to guy for November 4th, Republicans across the country need to rally behind him early!

If you ask my friends, I've been saying this for the last 2-3 weeks: No matter who Republican party chooses as the nominee, the rest of the party will do well to fall in line and throw its support behind that man. As of the latest numbers, that man is most likely to be McCain.

If you've read any of my other recent posts, you'll know that my vote went to Romney. However, I am prepared now to give McCain my support in order to beat either Hillary or Obama.

Hewitt, in his marvelous post, mentions "Seven Reasons To Support The GOP's Nominee." I whole-heartily agree with Hewitt's assessment of the situation and will support the nominee for those same 7 reasons.

At this point let me address another Conservative radio personality:
Rush Limbaugh needs to shut up!

I heard Limbaugh mention that if McCain were elected the GOP nominee, he would not vote. Caustic Ann Coulter went even further to say that it would be better to cast a vote for Hillary than for McCain. This notion is ludicrous and illogical. It is political party suicide. To vote for anyone other than the GOP nominee, or not to vote at all, and to promote this decision to other Conservatives, deeply hurts the Republican party as a whole. It is selfish and unintelligent.

In my mind, it comes down to a "lesser of 2 evils" scenario--politically speaking. While I do not agree with many of McCain's political issues, I agree with him more than I would with Hillary or Obama. And the questions that continually come back to my mind with regards to our next President are exactly what Hugh Hewitt mentions: Will McCain select Supreme Court judges who uphold the U.S. Constitution as it was written? And, will McCain support the U.S. military in its fight against terrorism?

I believe that the answer to both of these questions is "YES."

And that's why I am willing to vote for John McCain as my next President.

I Voted Today

...and of course, I voted for Romney.

However, judging by the early exit polls, Mitt may have a tougher time than I thought in a number of states on this Super Tuesday 2008.

Stay tuned for more!!

CNN's Update: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/dates/index.html#20080205

...and click here to check out Medved's USA Today column!

My Candidate

Well, folks, I've gone ahead and decided on a candidate for whom to vote! It's taken me a long time to get to this point. I have probably changed my mind 11.5 different times between the end of 2006 and now. But after much thought, research, and analysis of the presidential hopefuls on both sides of the aisles, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one real potential President in the running at this point in time.

His name is

MITT ROMNEY

To tell you the truth, in some ways I've sort of surprised myself on this one. A year ago, I would not have considered Mitt as my "fave." In fact, I was actually at one time adverse to supporting Mitt simply because of his glowing support from one Hugh Hewitt (who, although I like Hugh, seemed almost infatuated with the guy). But as the candidates have all had their time and chances to promote themselves and each explain their positions on things such as foreign policy (the war on terrorism), the economy, the Supreme Court, illegal immigration, abortion, and gay rights, Romney seems to be the only candidate to continually match my personal views on each topic.

I know that I will likely receive much flack for my decision to support this candidate due to his religion, but I believe that I'm prepared to answer such questions and objections. This is a poltical election. We are voting for a President, not a pastor. Thus, whether the candidate's personal religion is Christian, Mormon, or Catholic, I will vote for the man for his policies, not his religion.* This means that I would not vote for Huckabee solely because he is a Christian, nor will I conversely ignore another candidate because he is a Mormon.

I'm sure I will post more on this topic in the coming weeks and months (assuming that Mitt gets the GOP nod come Super Tuesday). In the meantime, as I do my best to be a thinking American voter, I am a Christian who rests on God's sovereignty. May His will be done.

* - That being said, I have concluded that I could not ever vote for a Muslim candidate. This conclusion is based off the tenents of the religion. Islam is an eastern religion that is based on, in part, the doctrine of Jihad. It is, at its core, a religion founded and continued upon violence. Mormonism, while antithetical to Biblical Christianity, maintains similar values as Christianity based largely upon the priniciples of the Bible.

1-18-08

It's one thing to read about something, isn't it?
It's quite a different thing altogether to experience something personally.

For the past 6.5 months, I have spent way too many hours of my life preoccupied with researching, web-searching, and imagining what terrifying events January 18, 2008 might bring to us.

Tonight, I found out 1st hand.

It's called Cloverfield. By now most of America has seen a preview on television, the internet, or right before Transformers in July. Probably the most recognized symbol of this movie is the ominous graphic of the Statue of Liberty--without her head.


Now I know exactly why she is missing her head.

I just returned from seeing a pre-screening of Cloverfield with my wife and a friend. As the credits rolled less than 2 hours after the Paramount logo twirled onto the screen, I sat in my theater chair
motionless;
speechless;
almost smiling.

Producer J.J. Abrams is a genius. I will say nothing in this post about the movie's characters (any of them!), nor about the plot line. But quite frankly, I'm glad to know that Abrams and Matt Reeves (the movie's director and personal friend of J.J.'s) will enjoy amazing financial success from the upcoming nationwide release of this movie. I say this because Abrams (and Reeves, too) is a genius.

Without giving anything important about this movie away, Abrams is a genius not because of a completely original idea for movie (because, as you see, it's not!), but because of the way he has packaged this movie from start to finish: with the mysterious trailer at the beginning of one of the biggest movie releases of 2007 which kept geeks like me scowering for more info ever since, to the amazingly creative internet ad campaign which never seemed much like movie advertising as it did story-telling, to the entirely novel way the film was written, shot, and cut.

To tell you the truth, Cloverfield is quite a simple story--a story more about human relationships than anything else. But it's a simple story that pulls you in early, takes you for a tornado-of-a-ride, and then drops you back into your theater seat motionless, speechless, and almost smiling. While Abrams himself would admit that the generic idea of the story isn't at all original, the premise in which this idea is set absolutely is.

For your own good, I would implore you to see this movie on 1-18-08 (this Friday!). It could change your life.

And to Abrams, Reeves, and the rest of the Cloverfield team: Thank you for sharing your gifts.

-David


P.S.
For snapshots from the movie, visit http://www.1-18-08.com/.

P.P.S.
Flip the pictures over.

Lakeshore, Mississippi

It's going on three years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the shores of Mississippi and Louisiana.

On Saturday, a group of five men left from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to join forces with 140 other people in Lakeshore, Mississippi--"Ground Zero" of Hurrican Katrina--to continue with the rebuilding project in that community for 7 days.
My brother Paul is one of those men.

Paul shared a website with me today that is an ongoing blog chronicling the work being done throughout the week: http://www.arbcainlakeshore.com/. It shows pictures of some of the devasted structures and landscape. It shows men and women hard at work to rebuild Lakeshore. And most of all, it shows the love of Christ being put into action. These 140 men and women from churches across the country and Canada have a common purpose: to shine the light of Jesus Christ to the people of Lakeshore through their words and ministry for the glory of God alone.

From what I understand, this mission was organized by Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in conjunction with Lakeshore Baptist Church there in Mississippi and the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America (ARBCA).

Take a moment to visit this website, which is being updated daily this week, and pray for the workers as well as the surrounding community.

Below outlines how we can pray specifically for this ministry.

Please pray for us and our work in the following areas:
The salvation of men through the outward proclamation of the gospel and the good works of our hands.
The spiritual edification of the volunteers as we worship, serve, fellowship, witness, and study the Word of God.
The physical safety of our crews as they conduct difficult and often very dangerous tasks.
The health and growth of Lakeshore Baptist Church and God’s granting wisdom to pastor Don Elbourne.
The humility of each volunteer as we serve –may God keep us from being prideful and boasting in anything other than the cross.
Patience and flexibility: Hallmarks of disaster relief mission work.

My Books

So I got a few new books for Christmas. I'm in the middle of a terrific book by James L. Swanson called Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. It's captivating to say the least; rarely a slow moment in its nearly 400 pages!

Now I can share my library with anyone using LibraryThing.com. Challies blogged about it a few times. Here he discusses how to organize a library, in which he mentions this helpful online cataloging tool.

So if you're bored or interested, have a look at some of the books in my library online!

Michael Calls It Right in Iowa...IT'S MIKE!

Since my first year of college, I have been a huge respector (okay, "fan"!) of radio talk show host, movie critic, political commentator, and outspoken conservative Jew, Michael Medved. And today just proved another reason why I'm a "Medhead."

Last night/early this morning, Medved posted an article predicting the GOP winner in the Iowa Caucus today. Guess what?...He nailed it: Mike Huckabee.

Now, Medved has yet to endorse any one candidate (and I am trying to follow his example, although, as of late, I have been impressed more with both Romney and Huckabee than the others), but I sure do appreciate his recent defense of the Huck. Huckabee has faced more undue criticism over the last month or more than any other candidate. Sadly, this criticism has poured out of the mouths of critics on BOTH sides of the media (e.g. Limbaugh from the Right and Russert from the Left). Medved accurately outlines one glaring example of this harsh criticism in another article here.

Check out the above article links, and if you do, I hope you will be enlightened about one Republican candidate vying for the Presidency "of this greatest nation on God's green earth!"

Exerpt from Tim Russert's interview with Governor Mike Huckabee:

Tim, I've been asked more about my faith than any person running for president. I'm OK with that. I hope I've answered these questions very candidly and very honestly. I think it's important for us to talk about it. But the most important thing is to find out, does our faith influence our public policy and how? I've never tried to rewrite science textbooks. I've never tried to come out with some way of imposing a doctrinaire Christian perspective in a way that is really against the Constitution. I've never done that.

Happy 2008!

One of my resloutions for the new year:

blog more.

Peace through Violence

I recently gave a message to our college group at Grace Covenant during our annual Christmas fellowship. A few weeks before, I began thinking about what I might share with the group of young adults. Of course I knew that I would bring a message on the topic of “Christmas,” but the more I began to think about it, the more I realized how many topics and subtopics can flow out of the heading, “Christmas.” Literally thousands of sermons could be preached on the topic of Christ’s birth—the actual event and surrounding events, the prophecies foretelling it, the implications of his arrival, the essence of his person, the miracle of a Virgin birth, the faith of his parents, et cetera, et cetera!

But as I read the 2000-year old story in Luke 2 about the birth of our Lord, God seemed to bring one concept to my mind more than anything else.

As I read that passage in preparation for the devotion, it was verse 14 that really jumped out at me:
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels sang this song from the heavens on that ever-so holy night, they were both proclaiming a doxology of praise to God and passing along the very almost-unbelievable promise of “peace on earth.”

You see, it was this part about peace on earth that stuck with me after reading this passage.
And I’ll tell you why as I ask you—When you read the daily news and see the world’s headlines on TV, does it look to you like there’s “peace on earth”?
No. Of course it doesn’t.

So I had to think deeper on the matter—what exactly were the angels telling those shepherds? How would there be peace on earth through the birth of one little baby in a small town in Bethlehem?

Here’s what J.C. Ryle said about this “peace on earth”—

“Now is come to earth the peace of God which surpasses all understanding,—the perfect peace between a holy God and a sinful man, which Christ was to purchase with his own blood,—the peace which is offered freely to all mankind, the peace which, once admitted into the heart, makes men live at peace with one another, and will one day overspread the whole world.”

You see, I think that this peace on earth is a spiritual peace, not necessarily a physical peace between warring nations or peoples.

Matthew Henry said in his commentary on Luke,

“God's good-will in sending the Messiah introduced peace in this lower world, slew the enmity that sin had raised between God and man, and resettled a peaceable correspondence. If God be at peace with us, all peace results from it: peace of conscience, peace with angels, peace between Jew and Gentile.”

This peace is the peace that God makes with us when he turns our hateful and rebellious hearts of stone into obedient and humble hearts of flesh. This peace is the peace that comes with salvation! Look at these 2 verses that speak about this kind of peace…

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Colossians 3:19-20

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:1

So the question, and the ultimate point of that message, is this: How exactly did God the Father secure this peace on earth through that baby Jesus? The angels said that there would be peace on earth, but how would this peace become a reality? How would this peace be given, or transferred, to us??

This is where things get interesting!

Let’s read what God’s prophet Isaiah said to help us figure this out…

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5

Whoa!

How was peace brought to us?...through His punishment!
You see, the answer to the question is this: God used violence to bring peace!

I know what you’re thinking: “That’s crazy!”…”How can violence produce peace?”
Well just look at the wars of history—World War II is a good example. Through violence (war), peace was eventually established in both Europe and between America and Japan. Further, throughout the Old Testament we see God using violence to achieve His purposes. One of the most used, God-ordained practices in Israel was blood atonement which always included the killing of an animal. Why do you think God had the Israelites sacrifice to Him like this?...to point to the ultimate sacrifice which came in the person of Jesus Christ!

“In him we have redemption through his blood”
Ephesians1:7

God brought us peace through violence.

The way in which Christ was killed was one of the most violent popular methods of execution known in all of human history! The Romans were brutal when it came to punishing criminals. And yet this is the way God showed His love for us—by allowing His only, beloved Son to come to earth and bring us peace by dying this horrific death. What a Savior we have who was willing to offer Himself in this fashion! And what a Father we worship who gave us this opportunity to find peace in the Prince of Peace, Himself!

Revelation 5:12 reminds us how important an event Christ’s death was for us by telling us that in heaven, the eternal song of the redeemed will be a song about death…

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”

So it’s as if even the manger was in the shadow of the cross—Christ’s entrance into this world was for the purpose of dying for us in order to bring eternal peace between God and men.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

May we not forget this important lesson this Christmas season in the middle of all of our shopping and gifting and celebrating; instead, thank Jesus for coming to earth, dying for you, and may God indeed receive the glory for all these things.

Where Are You Thanksgiving?

It was November 1st and I was in Target. My wife, Paige, was looking for some Thanksgiving decorations for our dining table. But we noticed rather quickly that the Halloween merchandise that was being taken down or moved to the Clearance section, was being replaced with Christmas decorations. No fall decorations anywhere.

The other day I was driving through my neighorhood and noticed at least 3 families putting Christmas lights on their houses.

Within the last week or so, I realized that the radio, and most large retail stores, are all playing Christmas music.

It's the middle of November. Have we simply forgot Thanksgiving? There's a song sung by country music star Faith Hill called "Where Are You Christmas?". Well, I would like to sing a song called, "Where Are You Thanksgiving?"

As much as I enjoy the holiday season--and admitedly, Christmas in particular--I can't help but feel bad for the Thanksgiving holiday. I mean, do people even consider the importance of this holiday anymore? What about the those Pilgrims (do I dare say "Puritans"?) who risked everything by leaving England and coming to the New World for the sake of religious freedom? What about the Indians who welcomed the Pilgrims and with whom the Pilgrims established friendship? What about the glorious good news of Jesus Christ which the Pilgrims brought with them to New England? And what about the Pilgrim's gratefulness to the God of the Bible? These things are what Thanksgiving is about.

And all of this talk begs the question: Who's to blame for shoving Thanksgiving into the holiday broom closet?

My best guess would be that we have the retailers to blame. Stores which sell Halloween items from July 5th to October 31st, then Christmas decor from November 1st to December 25th pay little respect to Thanksgiving. It's bad enough that many modern history textbooks pervert the true meaning of Thanksgiving from the Pilgrims thanking God, to the Pilgrims thanking the Indians. But now, it seems to me that Thanksgiving is dwindling to a blip on the yearly holiday radar.

Let this not be the case for you and yours this Thanksgiving! Give thanks to God for your freedom. Give thanks to God for the Puritan Pilgrims. And give thanks to God for His abounding mercies to this fallen race.

Remember the Mayflower!

Happy Anniversary...

...to ME!

It has been one year this month since I first opened this site and made my debut as a blogger.

Looking back at the last year of blogging, I have learned a handful of lessons. However, one thing in particular stands out as the #1 thing I have learned--Blogging consistently is a LOT harder than I thought it would be!


The time and discipline required to make a blog worth reading is probably more than I have right now. Hence, the low number of hits this blog has received since it started. But that's okay. My reason for blogging isn't necessarily to impact a mass populace, but to fine tune my thinking and writing skills and to have an outlet for editorializing. I have enjoyed blogging so far, and look forward to future years of writing in the Blogosphere.

Happy Anniversary, A Fruitful Life.

365 Days & Counting...

Today is election day in the United States, and 264.25 days from today our nation will gather at pollling stations in each of our 50 states to elect for ourselves a new President. In doing so, we will be electing both the President and his (or her) 2nd-in-command, the Vice President. The new President will then decide on a handful of close, trusted officials to serve on his or her Cabinet. Additionally, it is expected that within the next President's 4 to 8 year term, at least 2 Supreme Court Justices will need to be replaced. This, as time will tell, will be the most important role of America's next President: nominating new judges to the Supreme Court bench.

Let us be wise citizens as we listen over the next few weeks and months to the candidates discuss their principles and policies. And let us be fervent in our prayers as we are now exactly one year away from voting into office the next Commander-in-Chief of this greatest nation on God's green earth!

It's Sunday

I love Sundays...

Corporate worship of God.

Fellowship with brothers & sisters.

Opportunity to minister to others.

Chance to be ministered unto.


Someone once said that the Christian life is like breathing:

You inhale God's Word, prayer, and fellowship and exhale love, mercy, and good works.
(loose paraphrase)

Here are two unrelated portions from Spurgeon, each mentioning "Sundays"...

Churches are not made that men of ready speech may stand up on Sundays and talk, and so win daily bread from their admirers. Nay, there is another end and aim from this. These places are not built that you may sit here comfortably, and hear something that shall make you pass away your Sundays with pleasure. A church in London which does not exist to do good in the slums, and dens, and kennels of the city, is a church that has no reason to justify its longer existing. A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be. Not for thyself, O church, dost thou exist, any more than Christ existed for himself. His glory was that he laid aside his glory, and the glory of the church is when she lays aside her respectability and her dignity, and counts it to be her glory to gather together the outcast, and her highest honour to seek amid the foulest mire the priceless jewels for which Jesus shed his blood. To rescue souls from hell and lead to God, to hope, to heaven, this is her heavenly occupation. O that the church would always feel this!
Delivered on Sunday Morning, October 24th, 1869, byC. H. SPURGEON

There are a vast number of people in the world who go to church and to chapel, because everybody else does so. It is disreputable to waste your Sundays, not to be found going up to the house of God, therefore they take a pew and attend the services, and they think they have done their duty: they have obtained all that they sought for, when they can hear their neighbors saying, "Such-and-such a man is a very respectable person; he is always very regular at his Church; he is a very reputable person, and exceedingly praiseworthy." Verily, if this be what you seek after in your religion, you shall get it; for the Pharisees who sought the praise of men "had their reward." But when you have gotten it, what a poor reward it is! Is it worth the drudgery? I do not believe that the drudgery to which people submit in order to be called respectable, is at an compensated by what they gain. I am sure, for my own part, I would not care a solitary rap what I was called, or what I was thought; nor would I perform anything that was irksome to myself for the sake of pleasing any man that ever walked beneath the stars, however great or mighty he may be. It is the sign of a fawning, cringing spirit, when people are always seeking to do that which renders them respectable. The esteem of men is not worth the looking after, and sad it is, that this should be the only prize which some men put before them, in the poor religion which they undertake.
Delivered on Friday Afternoon, June 11, 1858, by theREV. C. H. Spurgeon

Candidate Considertions, Part I

(I titled this "Part I" because I anticipate more blogs on this topic to follow over the coming months.)

I was recently discussing politics with a good friend of mine and dear brother. As one would expect, the topic of the 2008 Presidential election came up. Being that we are both staunch Republicans, each of us was interested in which candidate the other might support in next year's GOP primaries.

We both admitted our unsurety on the matter at the present, however my friend assured me who he would most likely not be voting for either in the primaries, nor the November election if need be: Rudolph Guliani.

I will concede that I understand the reasoning behind this notion: Guliani has a track-record of pro-choice and pro-gay rights advocation. Based solely on these issues, I would rather not vote for the man either.

However, I think we need to think smarter than that. The office of United States President is larger than one or two issues. As soon as February's primary election results surface, we Republicans need to unite together as a party behind the GOP's candidate, whether that be Rudy, Romney, or Fred (sorry Tancredo, Huckabee, Brownback, Paul, & McCain, but I think your chances for the GOP nod are quickly diminishing). If we do not, and instead split our votes between the GOP nominee and any other third party candidate, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

The recent "threats" from members of the religious right, such as Dr. James Dobson, to disavow itself from the Republican Party if Guliani is the nominee and support some third party candidate is utterly ridiculous and completely ignorant of the broader landscape of American politics. Consider these powerful words from Carol Platt Liebau on the matter:

In short, if the religious right decided to support a third candidate, it would become the biggest loser in a Giuliani-Clinton contest, whatever the outcome. Even so, it is tempting for those opposed to Giuliani’s pro-choice stance to speculate that a Hillary Clinton presidency might shock the country into greater receptivity to policies espoused by people of faith. But it’s worth remembering that similar hopes, coupled with discontent with the presidency of George H.W. Bush, inspired some to vote for Ross Perot in 1992. As a result, America endured eight years of a Clinton presidency – and set Hillary Clinton on the path she’s pursuing now.

And National Review columnist John Podhoretz wrote in a recent post, "A third-party candidacy on the Right undertaken by even a minimally serious person will, it is true, almost certainly doom any GOP chances in November 2008."

Justin Taylor posted these of his own thoughts on his blog last week:

1. I do not want Giuliani to be nominated for the Republican ticket. For those who are convictionally pro-life and want to see justice for the unborn prevail and Roe v. Wade overturned, it seems difficult to support Giuliani's candidacy at this stage when there are other viable pro-life candidates.
   
2. The ballgame changes if the race comes down to a pro-choice Republican vs. a pro-choice Democrat.


3. One has to ask whether or not it can be reasonably ascertained if one pro-choice candidate would be better than the other in terms of the cause of life. The key word, I think, is reasonable. We're not talking infallibility here.
   
4. The next president will undoubtedly get to nominate justices to the Supreme Court. No one doubts that Hillary Clinton will nominate judges with a judicial philosophy at odds with constructionalism and originalism.
   
5. I think there are good reasons to believe that Giuliani would appoint constructionalists and originalists, as he has promised to do--in part because I think he will want to placate the Republican base. (Even if he does this for only one term in order to win reelection, which I think is doubtful, then the next point still stands.)
   
6. One must recognize that if it comes down to Guiliani vs. Clinton, a vote for a third-party candidate will undoubtedly guarantee a Clinton presidency (likely for the next eight years). Read that sentence again. Now read it one more time. I think it's incontrovertible, and I'm not sure some pro-lifers have sufficiently recognized this.
   
7. The irony, then, is that being a single-issue voter on the cause of justice for the unborn can actually lead to increased injustice for the unborn.
   
8. At the end of the day, perhaps we can categorize the two positions as (1) principled pro-life purity and (2) principled pro-life pragmatism.
   
9. It seems that the Religious Right (by which I mean the James Dobson Republicans--the elite evangelical political influencers of soccer moms and the like) are in a pickle: Mitt Romney is a Mormon, Fred Thompson doesn't seem like a Christian, and Mike Huckabee doesn't seem electable. From my seat in the bleachers, it seems like they should pick one and stick with him.
   
10. It is a valid, legitimate point that if the Republicans nominate a pro-choice candidate, then this precedence opens the door for the nomination of pro-choice Republican candidates in the future.

While I may or may not agree with all of Justin's points, I appreciate the fact that he is putting some deep thought into this election race and not taking a lazy or passive approach to choosing our nation's next potential leader.

May we all do the same as we pray for God's will to be done.

I Have Returned

I know, I know...it's now officially been over a month since my last blog post. Sad, but true. I could run off a list of excuses, but that would be both time consuming and pointless.

Instead, I can more easily summarize my absence in a word:

life.

But now I am back and am recommitting to blog at least twice a week (at least through the end of the year.)