All posts by Wintery Knight

https://winteryknight.com/
Mentoring

MUST-READ: The Pugnacious Irishman does a brave thing that we must imitate

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OK, now this is what I really like to see.

Excerpt:

Set up my classroom today…it’s an ordeal.

I have this gigundous bookshelf next to my desk that contains the  books I’ve read.  My theory is that if I want to make my students readers, I must model it myself.  In order for that to happen, they need to see me as a reader, which means they should see what I read.

If a student’s parents sign a waiver, the student has permission to check out any book in my room, including from my shelf (the lone exception is that books from my shelf can’t leave the room–I’m very territorial about my books.  :) ).

While I have a large range of reading interests, there are many Christian themed books.  Science, philosophy, theology, history–it’s all represented.

I can see some students balking at this.  “Isn’t that illegal?” they might ask.  “Hey!  Them’s religious books, and that violates the separation of church and state!” they might quip.

One time during a discussion at my previous school in which a religious question came up, a student objected: “my junior high teacher told me that it’s a sin to talk about religion in the classroom.”  Now there’s a contradiction if I ever heard one!

There’s no way I’m gonna let some ill-thought out one liner from a student or even parent get me to back down.  I’ve thought about this, and I have a ready response.

Read the whole thing! He goes into details explaining why he is not intimidated by the threat of people being offended. This is a great post. Very inspiring!

And now I want you all to consider trying to be like Rich! If you have a workplace, consider adding something that identifies you as a Christian. Rich just got married, and it hasn’t affected his level of bravery one bit! One of the main reasons I avoid marriage is because to me it means the end of adventures. I just cannot believe that my wife would encourage me to be brave. But Rich’s example should be an inspiration to us all!

This is exactly what I wanted to do in life, but by then I was committed to computer science… I dream of teaching! But I’m not sure how to get into it, and I don’t want to be in a union.

To learn more about bravery in the workplace

Listen to some lectures by my favorite Christian of all, the one I try to emulate most in my day to day life.

Dr. Walter L. Bradley

  • Ph.D. in Materials Science, University of Texas at Austin, 1968
  • B.S. in Engineering Science, University of Texas at Austin, 1965

My favorite lecture of all time:

And variations of his “Giants in the Land” lecture that I like:

Other lectures:

Post what YOU do to be identified as a Christian in YOUR workplace in the comments!

News

CRISIS: Rifqa Bary’s hearing is today! Please take action now!

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UPDATE: Robert Spenser reports that Rifqa will stay in Florida until the next hearing on September 29, 2009. Pamela Geller has videos.

Here is a call to action regarding the ex-Muslim 17-year-old girl from Ohio who converted to Christianity and fled her parents.

Fox News has a story about the line her attorney will take.

Excerpt:

In a 35-page memorandum filed Monday in Orange County family court, attorney John Stemberger claims Fathima Rifqa Bary, who will remain in foster care in Florida at least until a hearing on Thursday, should not be returned to the custody of her parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, because of their connection to the Noor Islamic Cultural Center near Columbus, Ohio.

“The leader of the mosque, Dr. Hany Saqr, was previously an imam for another area mosque at the same time the largest known Al Qaeda cell in the U.S. since 9/11 was operating out of the mosque,” the document read. “Additionally, Dr. Saqr was identified in exhibits submitted by the Department of Justice in a recent terrorism finance trial in Texas as being one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America — an international organization responsible for birthing virtually every Islamic terrorist organization in the world, including Al Qaeda.”

The center also is affiliated with Dr. Salah Sultan, a “cleric alleged photographed with terrorist leaders designated as such by the U.S. government,” according to the document, and frequently hosts “extremist speakers” who have allegedly made statements supporting violence and terrorism.

Stemberger also claims the Noor Center has been “directly tied” to an ongoing probe into Somali-American youths who fled the U.S. to train in terror camps operated by the Al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab terror organization.

You can read more about her mosque here on the Jawa Report.

Lots of videos on some of the characters affiliated with the radical mosque attended by Rifqa’s parents.

Take action

Governor Charlie Crist’s office:

Phone: (850) 488-4441 and (850) 488-7146
Fax: (850) 487-0801
Email: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com

Florida Department of Children and Family:
George H. Sheldon, Secretary
Phone: (850) 487-1111
Fax: (850) 922-2993

And after you’ve contacted both of them, PLEASE PRAY! This is life or death!

Her parents planned to flee the country

The Washington Times has more on the case. (H/T Jihad Watch)

Excerpt:

In mid-July her mother went through Rifqa’s private things and found her journal. It was then revealed to her mother that Rifqa was a practicing Christian. Mrs. Bary called her husband and alerted him that Rifqa was still practicing Christianity in secret.

Mr. Bary cut his business trip short to return home immediately while Mrs. Bary packed the family’s bags to go back to Sri Lanka. Whether Rifqa would have been honor murdered before or after they returned to Sri Lanka is known only to the Barys.

It was very clear that Rifqa’s father planned to flee the country with his threatened daughter. According to very recent documentation, Mr. Bary dissolved his business on July 29 — after Rifqa ran for her life (fearing an honor killing for her apostasy) and was discovered in Florida.

This was not an insignificant business, with annual sales of $237,561. That’s a lot to give up. So why did Mr. Bary dissolve his business so suddenly? He obviously did not expect Rifqa to prevail in Florida court. Like all the pundits, he expected Rifqa would have to go back to Ohio.

Mr. and Mrs. Bary signed papers in Ohio with Franklin County Children Services, saying they would be happy if she were brought back to the state and placed in a foster home for at least 30 days. They just wanted to get her back in Ohio and out of Florida and Floridian interference.

Thirty days in foster care in Ohio (and what good does that do?) and then they wing her to Sri Lanka. Rifka said it herself: “In 150 generations of my family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first one. Imagine the honor in killing me. There is great honor in that. Because if they love Allah more than me, they have to do it. It’s in the Koran. … They have to do this. They just have to. Either they do that or they send me back to Sri Lanka. There’s an asylum there where they put people like me, like, think I’m crazy.”

Mr. Bary began the process of dissolving his business in early July when it became increasingly clear that Rifqa was a true convert to Christianity. At that time, he waved her laptop at her and said, “You are dead to me. You are not my daughter.” He told her: “I will kill you.”

His sudden dissolving of his business indicates he was deadly serious. But you won’t learn them from the mainstream media. For them, and for the almost-as-clueless courts, he is “indigent.”

And don’t forget about the two brave Iranian women still in a filthy Iranian fail for refusing to deny Christ. Pray for them, too!

(Note: if you want to know where Obama is, look here. We are on our own!)

News

Good news for the right to free speech in Canada!

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Life Site News has the best post I’ve seen so far.

Excerpt:

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled today that section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, Canada’s human rights legislation against hate messages, unreasonably limits the Charter right to freedom of expression.

[…]Popular conservative pundit and human rights commission critic Mark Steyn today said that the end of the hate speech legislation is near, calling today’s decision a “landmark decision.”  “This is the beginning of the end for Section 13 and its provincial equivalents, and a major defeat for Canada’s thought police,” he said. “It’s not just a personal triumph for Marc Lemire, but a critical victory in the campaign by Ezra Levant, Maclean’s, yours truly and others to rid the Canadian state of this hideous affront to justice.”

[…]The hate message section of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) has been the subject of growing criticism, having been accused of placing limits on the Charter right to freedom of expression.  High profile cases have been brought against conservative publisher Ezra Levant and columnist Mark Steyn, as well as numerous cases against Christians who have expressed their convictions against the homosexualist agenda.

The CHRC has admitted to using unethical methods within their investigations.  Notably, in a hearing during Lemire’s case, CHRC employee Dean Steacy testified that he and a number of colleagues regularly used an alias to post racist messages…  The CHRC was also investigated by the RCMP regarding allegations that they had hacked into a private citizen’s internet connection, though that case was dropped when it led the police to the American jurisdiction.

Until today, no respondent had won a human rights case brought to the Tribunal under section 13.  Further, about half of the section 13 cases have been brought by Richard Warman, and almost all of them in recent years.

Blazing Cat Fur has a huge round-up of blog reactions from the best Canadian blogs.

Here are some of the blogs from his round-up:

I took a look at the comments on BCF, and they are still pretty cautious, but excited.

This news was big enough to get picked up over at Hot Air by Ed Morrissey, who explains:

When government tells you what you can and cannot say in the political context, then free speech is essentially dead.  Section 13 created an enormously intimidating device for anyone who wants to argue their beliefs in the public square in Canada.  Even in just a “remedial” mode, it creates an atmosphere where people have to worry whether their speech will create a necessity to seek government approval, and the costs of defending speech become so onerous as to silence people.

The conservatives need to make this an issue in the next election, which is coming soon since the Liberals have announced that they are no longer going to back the Conservatives. Now is the time for bold action, Stephen Harper.

Further study