Religion and some Politics

Oh boy, assuming anyone reads this you probably just cringed a little. Religion and politics never seem to fit together very well because often we choose to put at least a tidbit of our faith on hold while we vote. Of course i am guilty of this too. But recently i was sent an email that has apparently become very popular on the web that is claiming Obama to be the anitchrist. now some of you more liberal friends of mine maybe thinking that i am going to agree with the email but i assure you i do my research before believing just anything, just ask Will and the argument about the copper roofs. So any ways the email included this: (i dont know who it is written by)

According to The Book of Revelation:

The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will
deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.

And now: For the award winning Act of Stupidity Of All Times the People
of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the
Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of America -- a male of Muslim
descent in his 40s and who is the most extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an extremest).

Have the American People completely lost their Minds, or just their Power
of Reason ???

I'm sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the 'unknown'
candidate Obama.

The End


Ok, well yeah... i read that and i was like whoa! so i did some research, Revelation actually never uses the word "antichrist" so that is cool. the "beasts" in the book are never actually referred to as the antichrist but i guess the idea came from the "beast" being the one opposing God in the book. So lets suppose that Revelation is talking about the antichrist, still it never mentions the man being in his 40's or of Muslim decent. Now dont get all bent out of shape on whether or not Obama is Muslim, save that for another time. Islam did not even exist when the Bible was completed, it did not come into existence for another 400 plus years.
Now what is based on truth is that he will have "Christ-like appeal" Revelation 13:3 says "the whole world will be astonished and follow the beast." also he will have political authority, and be persuasive with his words. (read Rev. 13) So these qualities could be found in Obama but please do not think I am about to accuse him of being such. I am merely entertaining the argument. the word antichrist is actually only used in 1 & 2 John. in these contexts many people believe that an antichrist is anyone who does not believer Christ to be the son of God. so instead it is not one person but multitudes of people. Also it would seem that the antichrist is slowly coming into this world, not all at once, but slowly winning our appeal and praise. This sounds a lot like what we usually call "worldly things." so possibly the antichrist is as simple as sin. I don't know and honestly i lost my train of thought. but it is interesting that people are even considering calling Obama the antichrist, and others are calling him the messiah or the second coming of Christ. This is what worries me, that people view him is such a holy light. Have we been deceived in anyway? Now let me remind you i am not ranting so that i may convince you to vote republican, i just want to discuss these things without the predispositions so many of us take into religious and political conversations. This takes me to the next article i came across:
(please read this without the mindset of defending the candidate you will be voting for, just read and listen to the opinion, i dont agree with everyhting in this article and i doubt you will either, but please dont be so ignorant as to dismiss any opinion opposing your political beliefs)

Why I Can't Vote For Obama
By Huntley Brown

Dear Friends,

A few months ago I was asked for my perspective on Obama, I sent out an
email with a few points. With the election just around the corner I decided
to complete my perspective.

First, I must say whomever wins the election will have my prayer support.

Obama needs to be commended for his accomplishments, but I need to explain why I will not be voting for him.

Many of my friends process their identity through their blackness.

I process my identity through Christ. Being a Christian (a Christ follower)
means He leads, I follow. I can't dictate the terms He does because He is
the leader .

I can't vote black because I am black, I have to vote Christian because
that's who I am. Christian first, black second. Neither should anyone from
the other ethnic groups vote because of ethnicity. 200 years from now I
won't be asked if I was black or white. I will be asked if I knew Jesus and
accepted Him as Lord and Savior.

In an election there are many issues to consider but when a society gets
abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, and human cloning wrong, economic concerns will soon not matter.

We need to follow Martin Luther King's words, don't judge someone by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character. I don't know
Obama so all I can go off is his voting record.

His voting record earned him the title of the most liberal senator in the US
Senate in 2007.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Obama: Most Liberal Senator in 2007 (1/31/2008).

To beat Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton as the most liberal senator takes
some doing. Obama accomplished this feat in two short years. I wonder what would happen to America if he had four years to work with.

There is a reason Planned Parenthood gives him a 100 % rating.
There is a reason the homosexual community supports him.
There is a reason Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, Hamas, etc., love him.
There is a reason he said he would nominate liberal judges to the Supreme
Court.
There is a reason he voted against the infanticide bill.
There is a reason he voted No on the constitutional ban of same-sex
marriage.
There is a reason he voted No on banning partial birth abortion.
There is a reason he voted No on confirming Justices Roberts and Alito.
These two judges are conservatives and they have since overturned partial
birth abortion--the same practice Obama wanted to continue.

Let's take a look at the practice he wanted to continue.

The 5 Step Partial Birth Abortion procedure

A. Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's leg with forceps.
(Remember, this is a live baby.)
B. The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal.
C. The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head.
D. The abortionist jams scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are
then opened to enlarge the hole.
E. The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child's
brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then
removed.

God help him.

There is a reason Obama opposed the parental notification law.

Think about this: you can't give a kid an aspirin without parental
notification, but that same kid can have an abortion without parental
notification. This is insane.

There is a reason he went to Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years. Obama tells us he has good judgment, but he sat under Jeremiah Wright teaching for 20 years. Now he is condemning Wright's sermons. I wonder why now?

Obama said Jeremiah Wright led him to the Lord and discipled him. A disciple is one in training. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19 - 20 'Go and make disciples of all nations.' This means reproduce yourself. Teach people to think like you, walk like you, talk like you believe what you believe, etc.
The question I have is, what did Jeremiah Wright teach him?

Would you support a white President who went to a church which has tenets that said they have a:

1. Commitment to the white community.
2. Commitment to the white family.
3. Adherence to the white work ethic.
4. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available
to the white community .
5. Pledge to allocate regularly, a portion of personal resources for
strengthening and supporting white institutions.
6. Pledge allegiance to all white leadership who espouse and embrace the
white value system.
7. Personal commitment to embracement of the white value system.

Would you support a President who went to a church like that?

Just change the word from white to black and you have the tenets of Obama's former church. If President Bush was a member of a church like this, he would be called a racist. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton would have been marching outside.

This kind of church is a racist church. Obama did not wake up after 20 years and just discover he went to a racist church.

The church can't be about race. Jesus did not come for any particular race.
He came for the whole world.

A church can't have a value system based on race. The church's value system has to be based on biblical mandate. It does not matter if its a white
church or a black church--it's still wrong. Anyone from either race who
attends a church like this would never get my vote.

Obama's former Pastor Jeremiah Wright is a disciple of liberal theologian
James Cone, author of the 1970 book, 'A Black Theology of Liberation.' Cone wrote: 'Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him.'

Cone is the man Obama's mentor looks up to. Does Obama believe this?

So what does all this mean for the nation?

In the past when the Lord brought someone with the beliefs of Obama to lead a nation it meant one thing -- judgment.

Read 1 Samuel 8:6 when Israel asked for a king.

First God says in 1 Samuel 8:9 'Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.'

Then God says, 1 Samuel 8:18 ' When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.'

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. 'No!' they said. 'We want a king over us.

20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.'

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD.

22 The LORD answered, 'Listen to them and give them a king.'

Here is what we know for sure.

God is not schizophrenic.

He would not tell one person to vote for Obama and one to vote for McCain.
As the scripture says, a city divided against itself cannot stand, so
obviously many people are not hearing from God.

Maybe I am the one not hearing, but I know God does not change and Obama
contradicts many things I read in scripture so I doubt it.

For all my friends who are voting for Obama, can you really look God in the
face and say; 'Father, based on Your word, I am voting for Obama even though I know he will continue the genocidal practice of partial birth abortion. He might have to nominate three or four supreme court justices, and I am sure he will be nominating liberal judges who will be making laws that are against You. I also know he will continue to push for homosexual rights, even though You destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for this. I know I can look the other way because of the economy.'

I could not see Jesus agreeing with many of Obama's positions. Finally I
have two questions for all my liberal friends.

Since we know someone's value system has to be placed on the nation,

1. Whose value system should be placed on the nation?

2. Who should determine that this is the right value system for the nation?

The End

Ok, please hang with me if you're reading. I don't agree with all of this (for example the part about gay rights and such) so dont think im trying to bash Obama or liberals, again just trying to have a discussion. I by no means think you can say the pray above for McCain, this is not a pro-McCain post. So what this got me thinking about is how far do we take our faith into politics? is all hope lost to merge the two? do we live christian and then vote secular? I know the answer we want to say is "no" but how do we live? i think it would be hypocritical to bring half of our faith into our politics, stand for God on one issue but then ignore His word on another. So think about this, im tired of writing. but please if you are even the least bit angry or agitated right now from reading these articles dont respond yet. come at this with a clear mind not one that is already made up on who you voting for. remember for many of my friends reading this your faith is in Christ and in no human, so approach this with that in mind. again i am not hoping to convert you to the republican party i just want to urge us all to think about all of this.

let the angry responses begin... haha!

p.s. you know i love you guys so i am sorry if any of this felt like an attack, i would never condemn you for your political beliefs or would i ever want you to feel like i have. You are my brothers and sisters in Christ, that is primary. all of this is meaningless compared to that which we share.

And so it continues...

So the excellent experience of the Turkish education system continues. Thus far this week three of my teachers have started to talk about our midterms but it was a little different from midterms in the U.S. The teachers all asked, "when would you like to have your midterm? you dont have to decide now but think about it." This was shortly followed by, "We can discuss what you want the midterm to be, if you have any ideas or suggestions let me know." I was caught a little off guard, i mean seriously I didnt think you would give us this much freedom. So anyways this next week we are supposed to figure out when our midterm is and what it will be. sweet!

So the dorms are kinda like a prison. today as in the past, the cleaning ladies came in and scoured the place resembeling how the gaurds in a prison over turn mattresses and look for shanks and such. louis and I are sitting in our underwear and boom the door opens and two ladies start sweeping, mopping, wiping, spraying, and so on. We are apperantly inanimate objects because they act as if we are not here. They mop under our chairs with us in them and clean the desk with us working at them. We decided to give them their space so we left the room and watched as they continued their clean sweep of the room and bathroom. by the way, to clean the bathroom they take the shower head and spray everything! walls, mirrors, toilet, and floor. they make a mess which they them clean up. so after some time they finish and we return to our regularly scheduled morning.

Yes another laundry story. Every trip to the laundry room is an interesting experience because the guy down there only knows two words in English: "tomorrow" and "Bush". But this time it was slightly more interesting/frustrating. Louis and I are trying to figure out what time we are supposed to come back to get our clothes. We understand that that guy wants us to come back at one o'clock tomorrow. Of course we assume that this means 1pm, wrong! 1:30am roles around and I wake up to constant knocking on the door. I assume its something not important and that the person will wait till morning, but they persist. I get up and answer the door to non other than the laundry man. He invites himself into the room and sets down our laundry, i say thank you, he goes off on some tirade in Turkish, i say goodnight. Looking back i suppose it was ignorant of me to assume that picking up our clothes at 1pm made more sense than 1am but then again it's Turkey and very little makes sense.

Oh yeah, Louis and i found a chinese restaurant and a dunkin doughnuts in a mall kind of near campus. there was much rejoicing.

To explain the picture above, we found a restaurant that is maybe serving Sodexho or they use Sodexho food, i dont know but it was cheap and amazing! For those of you unfamiliar with Sodexho it is the glorious company that feeds us at DU, they make amazing food that people tend to complain about. But that's fine dont eat it and leave it for Beeble and i to eat!

In Turkey you don't have class when...

So it has been a great time learning just how the Turkish education system works. It is fit to say that it is at the very best horribly inconsistent. So here is the list of times when you don't have class in Turkey:

1. It is the first day of the week. You can't learn too early in the week!
2. It is the last day of the week. And this is different for everyone since individual schedules vary.
3. When it's the middle of the week. Turkey adopted the idea of a siesta and then improved it.
4. It is too sunny out. If its too sunny it's too hot and you can't learn in the heat.
5. It's rainy out. Not only is it too cold to learn but all transportation stops when the roads are wet, buses, cars, dolmus(minibus).
6. Classes only happen between 11am and 3pm, also don't forget the one hour lunch break from 12pm to 1pm.

Keep in mind all of these criteria are followed by the professors as well.

When there is class, periodic breaks are taken merely to smoke. All of the students stand right outside the front door to the building and don't spread out. So a dense cloud of smoke forms on the threshold of the building. When the break is over evidence of the smoke fest is seen in the hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground, some still smoking if you're lucky! I have even had a teacher ask us, the students, if we could take a break so he could go smoke. Also when you have class it is not unusual for the teacher to answer their cell phone! Yes the professor will answers theirs! And students are permitted to leave the class room to answer any calls. In addition, class will often be cut short because the teacher has a meeting or has to be home by a certain time. In addition, just to make things interesting, professors will just out of the blue decide to change class rooms. They wont tell you, email you, or even leave a note in the old classroom, they will just move and assume you will figure it out.

In short, time in the class room is not a priority here. Oh well, it is all part of the experience and it has been great!

The Internet in Turkey

Some of you may have picked up from blogs or other messages that the internet is not as reliable or accessible here in Turkey and since being at school the internet has stopped working for at least a day every week on average. But myself and other international students have developed a theory and we think we have the internet in Turkey figured out. Over the past three or four weeks when the internet stops working, i have noticed that the truck pictured above is always in front of the administration building. you may be able to see in the picture that the truck has many cables and cords and electrical equipment. Need less to say it looks really expensive! anyways the truck is there all day with its cords and wires running up to a window and into the building. where they are going we don't know, until we produced the theory. And the theory is:

Every week our university essentially "runs out" of internet, the "tanks run dry" so to speak. So every week the internet delivery truck come to campus and fills up the internet tanks, it takes all day and around noon the internet usually starts working again. Evidence for this is simple to see, the administration building is basically like a water tower for internet, it is higher than the dorms but not all of the dorms, once you go above the 6th floor in the dorms the internet stops working. This is obviously due to the physics of the situation, the upper levels of the dorm are above the administration build thus gravity cannot naturally feed the internet to these floors. This can also be seen in the fact that the internet is always working in the administration building. Of course because it is closest to the internet tanks. Also we are all aware of the "refresh" button on our browsers. Well this is because internet goes bad over time, ergo it needs refreshing. Internet has a shelf life comparable to milk, this is why the tanks need refilling every week, if we had bigger tanks and filled them every two weeks, yes we would have internet longer but the internet at the bottom of the tank would be old and therefore the internet news, facebook updates, and emails would all be roughly a weeks behind. While this is of course not the case in the U.S. because we sit on a wealth of natural internet it is sadly how it works in Turkey where they have to import every kiloliter of internet form the United States or Europe.

Thank you reading our latest thesis and have a great day.

Learning experiences

Ok so there are a lot of situations here that are just funny, at least i laugh and so does louis (my roommate) we find a lot of Turkey funny, now dont misunderstand we are not laughing because we think the country or the turkish people are stupid or anything, its merely situational, the situations are some that you would never find yourself in in america. thus they are funny, i hope these are not stories in which you had to be there to enjoy them as much as i.

Laundry: To get your laundry done the past week or so a male would have to bribe a female into taking it to the laundry room in the female dorm and doing it for you. not many of us were successful on this endevouer. but thankfully news came that the laundry room in the new male dorm has opened. so i go to the make shift front desk that is located in just another dorm room and say "laundry?" they look at me, i look at them, a lot of looking, then they call this guy over and he motions for me to follow him. we then embark on a 15 minute journey into the bowels of the building looking for the laundry room. after going up and down unfinished stairs and walking through all sorts of construction areas, we come upon an oasis of light which is the laundry room. but the laundry man is not there so we leave. 5 minutes later we finally find our way back to the main level and i can now find my room. i would have gone back to the laundry room later that night to see the laundry man but there is no way i could have found it again, plus it was now dark and there were very few lights down there. so the next day louis and i go to the same make shift office and say "laundry?" the same blank stares are exchanged and then we go into the hall and meet another guy that can apparently lead us to the laundry room. but before we set sail a man who we have now found out is the boss man comes into the hall too, and he goes bananas! he starts to dish something crazy on the guy who is about to lead us, we dont know what he said but it was loud and stern and it all concluded in the poor guy that was going to lead us carrying all our laundry to the laundry room. so we start walking, but who knows how but the guy with our stuff disappears, just poof he is gone. so louis and i take the elevator (which is now working) down to the -2 floor. (yeah the ground level is 0 so anyhting below is minus) and from there we find the laundry room but it was different from the day before because some walls have been built in the last 18 hours so the lay out of the dungeon is different. but the guy with our stuff is not there, so we wait, but then the electricity goes out. so now we are just waiting there in the dark. but then we see a little door open and some light comes through and the man with our laundry appears and the lights turn back on, we rejoice! so we pay the man for our laundry and we are just waiting for some change and then the power goes out again. once more we are standing in the creepy dungeon laundry room in the dark just waiting. ligths come back on we leave our laundry and they say it will be done in 6 hours. yeah they wash it by hand. no they actually use these sweet magic washing contraptions that wash and dry all in the same thing a ma jiggy! its great! so i hope that was kinda fun to read, trust me it was a fun little expereince.

Electric outlets: Last night louis and i are laying in bed trying to go to sleep and then a POP! and a flash come from the wall. after moments of confusion we realize that my power strip blew up. but it didnt make sense because it was plugged into a voltage converter and everything. the electric socket under my desk doesnt work anymore so we try it in his, it works and then he plugs in his computer, POP and flash again and now the power in the whole room goes out. we blew 3 fuses.

Turks like corn: We go to dinner tonight and the cafeteria has a new addition, a kiosk in the shape of corn on the cobb. From which a man simply dishes out corn. you can get corn in cups of three different sizes and you can pay extra to have a sauce out on it, like BBQ sauce. louis and i just had butter, salt and pepper added and boy was it good! maybe it was just the fact that the corn came out of a giant corn koisk that made it good but none the less it was good corn.

I think that all for now but this is probably what my blogs will consist of now since i dont have anymore trips planned as of now. but i will still be seeing a lot of cool places around istanbul so keep reading. as always i miss you all and i miss DU but things here are awesome!

Ruins, Hot Springs, and the Legend of the hair cut Samurai

So let me begin with my most recent experience, a haircut. The reason i am including a normally boring thing in my blog is because this haircut was just a little crazy. There was one actually barber and the other four guys there just smoked i think, but i came to realize that they also had very long pinkie finger nails so i think they may do some crack too but who am i to say, they may have the long nail for another purpose, like digging small holes. anyways the barber was a samurai with scissors! he never stopped clipping the scissors open and closed, even when they were away from my head, snip snip snip snip he kept them going! so he just cut away for about half an hour (yeah it was a long appointment, i think his method of cutting hair is impressive but not efficient) he called to one of the smoking drug dealer guys and they brought us some tea, so in the middle of the haircut we stopped and had a tea break and he had a couple cigarettes himself. he then continued cutting and cutting. i feared i would have no hair left but i think he misses the hair he is trying to cut often. so, an hour later my hair is done, i bargain the price down a bit and i tell them him ill come back again. i think i will because even though the barber shop may be a front for a crack cocaine ring he still gives good haircuts.

On to the trip. It was soo cool! im going to try and write so that the blog coincides with the order of the pictures on facebook. our first night on the trip we had dinner in a barn like thing but the food was great! it was just some family that offered to feed all of us students. we then proceeded to our night time accommodations in the woods, it was nice we were by a lake but it was darn cold and we all bought crappy sleeping bags that are good for about 59 degrees fahrenheit but it got down to 41 degrees. so we pilled into a few tents and snuggled.
The next day we went to the Midas City, the place were the one and only King Midas lived! the one with the golden touch. it was cool, more caves like cappadocia, and then some cool walls carved out og the stone with intricate designs.
We then went on to our hotel for the night, they had a friendly flock of sheep that pooped all over the place and mowed the grass. haha but it was a nice place, we finally had a breakfast that was almost as substantial as an american breakfast, they had potatos, cereal, fruit, etc. it was great. they also had natural hot srpings here, they were nice. (sorry there isnt anything really exciting about hot springs)
Now moving on to a castle on top of a hill. im sorry i dont remember what the name of the city is, but they have a really cool caslte on top of the highest hill in the area and we climbed to the top! it was a good work out and you will see some cool pictures looking down on the city.
Next was a temple built for Zues. very cool, and it has survived the years very well. it is interesting, these ruins are just in peoples back yards or just in the middle of tiny villages. so its not like a city is thriving off the toursim to the ruins. shortly after this the buses got stuck in the mud! the guys got out and pushed them out it was a fun little experience.
Then we went to what was described to us as the underground Pammukale. some of you may be familiar with Pammukale (white mineral deposits left from water, hot springs) well its that just underground. it was so cool, it was a natural oasis in the middle of nothing, it was like a little rain forest underground. from there we went to the real Pammukale (above ground) it is an entire ancient city in ruins. there is a theater, cathedral, tombs everywhere, and a martyrium. Here myself and just a few others walked up to the place where the apostle Philip was stoned and crucified up-side-down. It was great experience, in a place where a man died for the same thing myslef and many others believe in.
The next day we went on to Aphrodisias, named after Aphrodite. You can see in the pictures, it is the one with the green grass around it on the sunny day. This place had beautiful ruins, including a theater and a stadium.
Then on to Ephesus, where they sell genuine fake watches. yes that is how they advertise them. they are genuinely fake, interesting. haha Ephesus was great! of course it is the people Paul wrote the book of Ephesians to, but also he also spoke in the theater here! it was awesome to stand where Paul once proclaimed the Gospel! how cool is that! well i though it was haha. near by is what is thought to be the house where Mother Mary died. it was cool but it had been restored so i think it lost some of its euthenticity. and i am a little skeptical of it being anyones house let alone hers. but either way some people have a very spiritual experience there, i think mainly catholics because they are more into saints and the virgin Mary kinda stuff.
Next, was one of the seven ancient wonders of the worder, the temple to Artemis in Ephesus. This was a more spiritual expereince for me because in Ephesians Paul talks about how the temple of our God is in us, not temples or churches. and centuries later there is a single column of the temple left that was recunstructed yet the temple of Christ is still standing strong! I really like that!
Ok then to Pergamum. We went to the acropolis in Pergamum, it was really cool. again, temples, theater, whites rocks, etc. Pergamum is another of the Seven Churches of Revalation, along with Ephesus. After that we went to Troy but they dont know if it is the actual place where Troy was, they dont even know if Homers story of Troy is true, so that aside it was more ruins of an ancient city.
That is all of the places we went to for the most part, I did forget to mention the night we slept in a contruction site. (dont freak out mom) we were supposed to sleep outside but it was raining a little and it was supposed to get worse so we went into this half built hotel, not windows, doors, lights, or water. i dont think it has been worked on in a year or so but it was good enough for us. but i couldnt help but laugh at how creepy it was! seriously a very good horror movie could have been filmed there, and there were a lot of cats around.
Now as for more serious things, God continues to work in great ways here. So many people want to talk about religion and many people want to read Mere Christianity now! its really cool, many of the other exchange kids are just generall interested in religion. I have been having some great conversations with people about God and love and such. i am seeing the remains of a lot of lives hurt by religion or at least people that have been turned off by religion so it is really cool to reintroduce faith to them. (well hopefully im doing that, God willing, i wont for a second think i represent Christ perfectly) it is has been great! i really enjoy having these conversations. and anyone who would like to hear more about them feel free to ask, i dont want to go into too much detail in this blog because of the simple fact that this is a public forum and think the conversations should be shared with some discresion.

To all of you thank you for your prayers, school is finally starting up for real this week and im excited to get going! i miss you and love you!

Brit