RUTHFULLY YOURS

Of all the points presidential candidate Ben Carson made in defense of his position that he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” most poignant is his reference to taqiyya, one of Islam’s doctrines of deception.

According to Carson, whoever becomes president should be “sworn in on a stack of Bibles, not a Koran”:

“I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country,” Carson said, referencing the Islamic law derived from the Koran and traditions of Islam. “Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”

Carson said that the only exception he’d make would be if the Muslim running for office “publicly rejected all the tenants of Sharia and lived a life consistent with that.”

“Then I wouldn’t have any problem,” he said.

Carson is now close to getting 1 in 5 black voters

These numbers are interesting mainly because there’s been a lot of effort put into trying to nail down Carson’s base of support.

Currently, in a national election, Bush beats Hillary by 2 percent, Carson is ahead by 7 percent. The difference doesn’t so much come from black voters, though Carson is now close to getting 1 in 5 black voters.

Carson does much better among white women, beating Hillary by 54 to 40 percent. (Every one of those “Republicans have a woman problem” articles are misrepresenting a racial gender voter turnout gap as a gender issue)

Jeb Bush does better with Latinos than Carson by 10 percent. But Carson picks up enough white and black votes that it doesn’t matter.

Pope Francis scolds America for the ingredients that made it great.

Pope Francis chided Americans yesterday for their supposed intolerance and xenophobia, the same thing President Obama does every day, in his historic address to the U.S. Congress.

Although Francis toned down his sometimes in-your-face rhetoric for his congressional speech, it was still a politically tone-deaf lecture on America’s failings, past and present.

It bore more than a passing resemblance to the many speeches President Obama has given around the globe apologizing for America’s history and greatness. The pope delivered this address standing on the dais in front of Vice President Joe Biden (D) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Both are Catholics. Boehner made this major debacle, which amounts to a propaganda boost for the Obama agenda, possible by inviting the pope to address Congress. (A full transcript of the pope’s address is available here.)

It may be significant that only four members of the nine-member Roman Catholic-dominated Supreme Court showed up for the Holy Father’s address. The attendees were Chief John Roberts (Catholic), Anthony Kennedy (Catholic), Sonia Sotomayor (Catholic), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jewish). Absent were Samuel Alito (Catholic), Antonin Scalia (Catholic), Clarence Thomas (Catholic), Stephen Breyer (Jewish), and Elena Kagan (Jewish).

The Left loves the pope’s message. Although the Left vindictively led the charge against the Catholic church during the various sexual abuse scandals, it now has the current pope’s back because, except for abortion, he agrees with leftists. For example, in recent days the Salon website, a hotbed of hostility to organized religion (except Islam), has switched sides. Salon has been running stories sympathetic to the pope with titles like “The transcendent compassion of Pope Francis” (by leftist mud-hurler Joan Walsh, no less), “Twitter tells the tale: Pope Francis’ speech does not sit well with the conservative ‘intelligentsia,'” “Conservatives who hate the pope rush to his defense,” “5 new ways Pope Francis is sticking it to the Christian right,” and “The GOP’s venomous Pope tirades are the ultimate example of hypocritical rage.”

Advocacy organization that booed Ted Cruz remains uncertain about jihad.

Last year’s inaugural In Defense of Christians (IDC) conference indicated to this author a “strategic confusion among beleaguered Middle Eastern Christian minorities,” a situation that lamentably remained unchanged this year. The recently completed September 9-11, 2015, IDC conference exhibited strange ideological crosscurrents, as panelists often sharply differed over the connection between Islam and religious persecution of Christians and others.
A moment of controversy at IDC’s initial panel, “ISIS, Genocide, and the International Response” at Washington, DC’s National Press Club (video excerpts here), set an ambiguous tone for the conference. Panelists like United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Commissioner Katrina Lantos-Swett focused on the “intrinsically evil” atrocities of groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Beyond politico-military responses, “ultimately, ISIS and like-minded groups must be defeated in the realm of ideas.”