My beautiful wife, Vicky, and me moments after walking down the aisle together last August
Over the course of the last couple of months, I have learned a wh0le lot about blogging. I’ve spent hours at a time learning how to drive more traffic to my site, hoping in the process to help shine some light on the darkness that is slowly creeping over our society as religion and morality become more and more relegated to the back burner.
In the past few days, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about copyright laws and how they apply to the blogging world. In particular, I read a great post on the subject at Gabriel Malor’s blog. Check it out here.
Unfortunately, copyright laws are much stricter than I expected, and in order to completely comply with such laws I would have to sift back through all 150ish posts from the past couple of months and do a lot of editing. Plus, my job would be a lot harder from this point forward as my freedom to post would have to become much more limited in order to fully comply with copyright laws and fair use standards.
More than that, though, the time I’ve spent blogging during the last two months has kept me from spending time doing things that are very important to me. So, after a great deal of thought, I’ve decided to take a break from blogging for the time being. In the meantime, I’ll be able to spend more time in God’s Word, more time with my wife, more time keeping up with my classes, more time preparing for law school at the University of Virginia, and more time preparing for my legal career in constitutional law (Lord willing).
To my fellow bloggers I wish you all the best. You are needed now more than ever, and it’s been my privelege to be a part of the effort to cover the stories the mainstream media doesn’t want us to hear.
To those of you who have become regular contributors and visitors to my blog, thank-you. If you’re on my blogroll you’ll stay on my blogroll, but of course you’re more than welcome to take me off yours if you so choose. My life is about to start getting really busy with law school starting in the fall, so I doubt I’ll be back on this blog any time soon.
In the meantime, I suggest checking out two particular websites if you’re interested in staying up on all the news regarding issues of religion and morality that we’ve been covering on this blog:
2) OneNewsNow
Until we meet again somewhere in the blogosphere, God Bless everyone. Stay strong. Keep fighting for all the things that matter most: marriage, family, life, religion, morality, and country. And, more than anything else, be in prayer for our nation daily. You can be sure I’ll be there, too.
43 comments
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February 21, 2009 at 11:39 am
waynealbus
Thank You for sharing the picture of your wedding day. Wish you the best and hope your not away too long!
Wayne Albus
http://www.waynealbus.wordpress.com
February 21, 2009 at 1:14 pm
rubyeliot
thank you for all your work!
February 21, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Raymond V Banner
Thanks for your contributions. God bless, guide and keep you in your personal and public life.
February 21, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Restoring
Fantastic blog!
Here’s a brief view shared from my blog at http://beythelofgod.blogspot.com
Role model Pro-family born again worship banning unmarried couples practicing pro-fornication worship as bad examples. Beyth-’el (House of God) is “Safe for the whole family.”
We will be glad to have our blog viewers retain insight from your blog by adding your link to our blog and exchange links.
February 21, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Ben
That’s great that you’re doing law school. If you’re looking to get plugged in to working on pro-family, pro-life Christian issues, I’d suggest applying for the Blackstone Fellowship in the Winter.
February 21, 2009 at 5:17 pm
cschande
Yep, that’s definitely the plan. I’m hoping to end up working for the Alliance Defense Fund after law school. That would be my dream job.
February 21, 2009 at 9:15 pm
VictorianLady
Good luck will all you do. Thank you for being a beacon on morality in the modern world. May the Lord bless your path with happiness and love.
Don’t stop living what you believe! We need more of you out there in the world! Not all lawyers are bad people; be a beacon for them as well!
February 22, 2009 at 3:51 am
Secular Heretic
All the best Chris
February 22, 2009 at 8:07 pm
beetlebabee
We will miss you! Every season of our lives is different. Fight the good fight wherever you are!
bb
February 22, 2009 at 10:36 pm
VictorianLady
Please, anyone who is pro-abstinence hop on over to my blog and post a positive comment about abstinence. All the comments I moderated seem to agree with Bristol Palin.
February 23, 2009 at 10:41 am
AsianConservatives.com
Best of luck in your studies! Will pray for you and your family.
February 23, 2009 at 12:06 pm
a red voice
Thanks for all your work and your contributions. Best of luck with all you do and God bless!!
February 23, 2009 at 1:26 pm
The Coos Bay Thunder Pot
Sir, I object to all the superficial well wishers that have posted above.
All this “good luck” and “God bless” stuff is nonsense without a view to correction.
What you have done is disgraceful. You have created a morally valuable website and attracted dozens of like minded websites by false promises, then you declare blog bankruptcy.
I checked your website through Goggle’s cache and it appears you had been cutting and pasting whole articles preceded by a one sentence lead in.
Though you made a mistake, correct yourself and continue in this righteous cause for traditional family values.
Small sections of newspaper articles can be quoted in the context of your post, as you probably know now. Go to michellemalkin.com to understand how to write a good post on a blog.
Sir, how long would it take to do a simple post each day: 5 minutes? In the time you check for email you could write a post.
Honestly, your post above is nothing short of blather.
Do not lead others to false promises, lead them to righteousness.
February 23, 2009 at 8:19 pm
The BoBo
Hey Chris – hope you come back some time soon. Also – regarding those copyright laws and blogging – there is a fair use disclaimer you can use to get by some of them. However, if you are posting pictures – as long as you link back to the originator you should be okay. Otherwise, non-copyrighted pics are okay. If you’re talking about written works – as long as you cite your source or link back to the originator you should be okay there as well unless there is something that specifically states you are not allowed to reproduce it without their specific permission.
Anyway – just wanted to drop in and let you know I got you up on my blogroll again. Hope to see you around again! Peace and God be with you.
February 23, 2009 at 10:41 pm
cschande
Thanks for the support everyone. Honestly, it was difficult to have to walk away from this after putting so much work into it and after feeling like so many people (it probably seemed like more than it really was) were relying on me and the work that was being done on this blog.
Coos Bay, what can I say? Your words really cut to the heart. I’ll admit I felt pretty silly when I realized my mistake and how much work it was going to take to go back and repair everything. Already I was spending hours every day working on promoting the blog and sorting through the news, trying to decide what was fit to print and what was not. Needless to say, this was taking away a lot of time from many things in my life that are very important to me, including my precious wife.
There was part of me that wanted to try to go back and fix everything and then start over to avoid having made “false promises,” but in the end I realized this would only take up more of my time, and that it wasn’t worth sacrificing my relationships with God and with my wife for a little blog, noble as its cause may be.
Thus, I made my decision and hoped that people would understand. Most of them did, as you can tell by the comments above. You, sir, appear to be the exception. You are entitled to your opinion, and I appreciate the work you are doing for the cause. However, I see no benefit in tearing down a fellow soldier in this fight, as you have done in your comment. That being said, may God Bless you in your work, and I am truly sorry for having let you down.
Bobo, thanks for the info. That was my understanding as well until I did a little more research into the matter (see the link I posted above). Apparently just providing a link back to the originator and citing your source is enough to avoid plagiarism, but it’s not enough to avoid copyright infringement. The most I could copy and paste would be a couple of paragraphs from each story, and One News Now won’t even let me do that much (I looked into their copyright policies specifically because I used a lot of their stories).
When I realized this I had to come to terms with the fact that I either had to start providing much more commentary (which would take up way too much of my time), or I’d have to just start posting very small excerpts, which is what the Alliance Alert website I linked to above already does. At this point I realized that I’m just not in a position to offer much to the blogging world at this present time (at least not if I want to comply completely with copyright laws).
I hope that explains my decision a bit more clearly for you. Who knows? Maybe after I get through law school I’ll start showing up in some of these articles instead of just having to blog about them! Who knows what the Lord has in store for me. Right now, though, I know it involves spending a lot more time in His Word and rubbing my beautiful wife’s feet (she’s a runner).
February 25, 2009 at 12:23 am
Patrick H
Chris,
Sorry that I didn’t notice your comment on my blog (back in January!) until just now.
I certainly understand about the amount of time that it takes to blog, etc.
If you have a moment, I’d still like to be added to your blogroll.
February 25, 2009 at 10:21 pm
{ Lisa }
You go boy!!
March 1, 2009 at 4:06 am
Mike
Just passing by.Btw, you website have great content!
_________________________________
Making Money $150 An Hour
March 3, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Media Impact - Paul
Wish you the best. Hope you will one day make a triumphant return
If you get a chance please check out my blog as well. Hopefully it’ll be useful for some of your users.
March 4, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Phil Hoover
many blessings in all that God has in store for you…Great wedding pictures… you are now added to my blog roll.
March 4, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Andrew Biddinger
TTYLs!!! God Bless you!
March 18, 2009 at 7:09 pm
nannabee
good luck with all you do and may God lead you each step of the way! Great blog …see you back on soon hopefully….
March 25, 2009 at 11:53 pm
ddominic
Be an ally for President Obadiah please vote for my statement. We make demands and statements of purpose as citizens because we have governing power:
http://moderator.whitehouse.gov/…ov/…?embed#8/ e=55f8
“”Dear President Obama, You have allies out here for a Department of Peace. In The Art of War it states that “In War, Practice Dissimulation” The citizens say In Peace do the Opposite. Its in a book I read as a child. We are with YOU Romans 12:9-21″
May 5, 2009 at 9:06 am
honeymoonapples
i don’t think religion has any part in politics…who cares if george washington said it does, UM HE ALSO HAD SLAVES. Quoting george washington in the header of your page is just another example of (although much much calmer, so calm you may not even get the connection im about to make) fear mongering. “If you don’t believe what george washington says, you aren’t american” is what you are hinting at. I don’t have a problem with your blog’s purpose (although I don’t agree with your views), I have a problem with that quote in the header.
Who cares if god is mentioned on our currency or in our songs, our pledge of allegiance. All things that came from another time in history, a time when women were treated unequal and minorities were slaves.
I know some people feel very strongly about religion, but they should also feel just as strongly about politics and i mean pure politics. It just isn’t right for a country that was founded on the basis of freedom from prosecution for personal beliefs to ban people from getting married based on what the not-large-majority think is “right” or for a country to tell women what to do with their bodies.
just my thoughts. BUT I do appreciate your making a blog about something you believe in, that is very admirable.
June 11, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Derek King
Dear Huck PAC Network Blogger:
Thanks for your great work in spreading the Huckabee message of limited government, American values, and free enterprise.
We at HucksArmy are building a blogging network to help promote the best content produced by member blogs.
About HucksArmy: We are an independent grassroots community committed to seeing common-sense government restored through electing Gov. Huckabee President as well as similar candidates.
Our website is at http://HucksArmy.com
Our Facebook is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hucks-Army/13588058967
Out Twitter is: http://twitter.com/hucksarmy
To submit your blog for consideration on your front-page blogroll, please email davidblp@hucksarmy.com with your: Name, Blog Title, Blog Address, Connection to Huckabee, and Main Blog Topic Focus
Also, if you have particularly good posts please alert us so that we can highlight them. We also are interested in people who want to guest post on our main blog (we can provide links to your home blog as well).
We look forward to hearing back from you!
- The HucksArmy Blog Team
July 22, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Michael
Religion and morality relegated to the back burner? Well, no. Religion ought to be because we do not need to keep dragging Bronze Age supersitions into the future with us. Religion is dying a slow death. Too slow.
As for morality, religion should never have been allowed to pretend it could hijack the concept.
August 16, 2009 at 9:52 am
Greg
I stopped by from Jeff Jenkins’ blog. I’m sorry to hear that you’re taking a break. We need more folks like you out here, but I totally understand what you mean about needing more time for other things. Studying God’s Word, family, and school are all very important.
Two books that I think you’d enjoy (and probably already have) are America’s God and Country (a book of quotations by our founding fathers and others) by William Federer and The 5000-Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen (about the founding of our nation).
September 17, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Michael
I like it when people say things like “studying God’s word.” Sort of like when dogs study a pile of throw up on the sidewalk. It’s not going to get any more interesting as time goes by. Try something that actually has some basis in reality or is at least good literature.
September 17, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Greg
Michael, rudeness is a terribly insufficient way to prove your point. I was an atheist, before I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, but I had the upbringing to be respectful to people of faith. Now that I’m on the other side, I will afford you the same courtesy.
September 18, 2009 at 9:04 am
Michael
Maybe I was rude. But I hold actual scholarship in high enough esteem that I can’t pretend that reading the bible qualifies. It’s akin to reading one’s horoscope and thinking that one is studying the stars.
September 18, 2009 at 9:44 am
Greg
Michael, thank you for conceeding the possibility that you were unkind. I hope we can put it behind us and engage in a more civil discourse.
You said that studying the Bible doesn’t qualify as scholarship and that it’s akin to studying astrology. This assertion rests on the opinion that the Bible is of no value, spiritual, moral, historical, cultural, or otherwise. But just because something is of no value to ME, it doesn’t mean it’s not worth studying. I could assert that since chemistry is of no value to ME, that YOU are a dunderhead for studying it. Or maybe I don’t personally believe in the value of economics theory, but since so many other people study it with a passion, I might be open-minded enough to concede the possibility that there may be value in it, perhaps even for ME.
From your first comment, I gather that you hold some value to the concept of morality. How do you view morality?
September 18, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Michael
I’ll tell you how I don’t view morality and I’ll tell you why I am here. This blog was one of just a handful linked back to from another that finally pushed a friend of mine to kill himself. Why? Because he was gay and his parents, righteous and churchgoing Christians, moaned about his morality at every turn and sent him these links. I lost my friend because of people like the ones here and they should not be allowed to remain blissfully ignorant of it, nor should they be allowed to continue in the delusion that the perceived demands of any mythological being or Bronze age tribal laws are ever, ever, ever somehow more important than even a single human life.
But, likely, a great many people here and places like it will deny any culpability. They will deny that they are part of the atmosphere that drove my friend to death. They are good and moral people, after all, and will never let anyone forget it. That they should maybe try withholding their opinions on how other human beings live their short lifespans will never occur to them. They have a right to make their religious belief part of the public discourse and to influence how people relate to one another – even to the extent of influencing public policy. Why would they ever consider that the peace and enjoyment of life of another person is in itself sacred? Why would they even think for a moment that other people should be left alone, free of hearing about what someone else’s religion has to say constantly?
The Christian religion in this country today bears so little resemblance to the one my grandparents held dear that it is amazing. Now it’s a conservative American Jesus cult, as concerned with the politics and lifestyles of other people as it is with anything else.
So, I’ve said my piece and I’ve told you what brought me here. Now you can go back to celebrating your happy moments in life while you condemn and actively deny them to others, sometimes to the point that those people feel they can no longer go on living.
September 18, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Greg
(Sorry this is so terribly long; I usually try to not be so wordy.)
Michael, I appreciate you putting this discussion in context. It did not occur to me, when I wrote my previous comment, that you would be of the opinion that the Bible has NEGATIVE (or detrimental) value. We tend to judge a group or an idea by observing the behavior of a small sampling of those who belong to it. I can develop a very negative view of gays, simply from their reaction to the passing of Prop. 8, in California. Likewise, I can use similar techniques to pass judgement on blacks, Muslims, truck drivers, etc….
I freely admit that there are very many obnoxious, rude, and overzealous people, who call themselves Christian, who very sorely misrepresent the teachings of the Bible, especially the New Testament. You said that Christianity today is nothing like the one that your grandparents professed. Could it be that the parents who you say drove your friend to suicide did not follow the Bible as well as your grandparents? Is a speed limit sign bad, if there are people who don’t obey it?
If I call myself a boxer and put on the whole gear (so that I also look like one), does that MAKE me a boxer? If you didn’t know anything at all about boxing, you might actually believe me to be one. But as soon as you see the REAL thing, especially one that proceeds to pummel me to the consistency of oatmeal, you would know who’s the real boxer and who’s the impostor. So you need a reference, by which to judge.
I came to a crossroads, when I was in college, and decided to go to the source for the answer: the Bible. I did not know whether there was ANY truth to be found in it, but realized that the only way was to read it for myself. I didn’t read ALL of it, at the time; not by a longshot. I started in the Book of John (4th book of the New Testament), but by the time I was half-way through, I was convinced and surrendered to Jesus. It hasn’t been all peaches and cream, but I do have that peace that you were talking about.
I don’t know the exact situation with your friend (and even you may not know all the reasons that drove him to take his own life), but I’ll tell you this: nagging and harrassment are the provinces of men, not Jesus. My dad is NOT a Christian, and yet he nags me about everything under the sun (including my beliefs). I know he didn’t get that from the Bible. The Bible actually teaches that if you see your brother sin, you are to approach him about it, in a humble way, up to three times. If after the third time, he does not want to change, drop it. Nowhere is it even implied that you are to harrass, nag, or hurt him. Dropping it doesn’t mean that you’re now OK with his problem, but the wisdom here is that you can only make things worse with your nagging.
We (especially as parents) tend to take it upon ourselves to “fix” the people around us. This is not restricted to Christians. EVERYBODY does this. And everybody has a belief system that they want to impose on others. You said that Christian groups want to influence public opinion and won’t let people enjoy their lives in peace. This is true of ALL activist groups (it’s in their definition). I invite you to name ONE activist group that does NOT try to impose its views on the population. Groups like the ACLU, ACORN, and GLADD want to change laws that restrict my freedom, while promoting views that I strongly disagree with. We’re in the middle of a war of worldviews.
I should add here that there is a fairly large subset of Christians who believe that we should totally stay out of politics and public policy.
Your assertion that every human life is sacred is so very true and can lead us down all sorts of fascinating paths, but that’s beside the point.
I was trying to answer the fundamental question: Is there intrinsic value in the Bible? If we can say that there is even ONE work of fiction that is worth studying (and there are plenty that are analyzed to death in literature classes), then the world’s all-time number one bestseller should be counted, EVEN AS A PURE WORK OF FICTION. But archaeology has independently validated many of the historical and cultural references found in the Bible, so I conclude that those aspects also add to its value and merit.
As a source of moral guidance, its value rests on a slippery slope, unless we accept that its author is our creator: God. As a spiritual guide, it falls flat on its face, without God’s authority behind it.
So I conclude that while the Bible HAS value that make it worthy of in-depth study and analysis, its value in the context talked about here (spiritual and moral) is entire reliant on one assertion, which I would phrase as follows: The Bible is an accurate representation of God’s will for us. You can debunk this assertion in two major ways: (1) prove there is no God, or (2) prove that God’s will for us is significantly different from what the Bible portrays.
July 23, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Dawn Cribbs
Greg,
Thank you for your gentle words of truth for Michael, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gentler rebuke. God bless you.
As to copywriting, may I have your permission to quote your closing graph “So I conclude that while the Bible HAS value that make it worthy of in-depth study and analysis, its value in the context talked about here (spiritual and moral) is entire reliant on one assertion, which I would phrase as follows: The Bible is an accurate representation of God’s will for us. You can debunk this assertion in two major ways: (1) prove there is no God, or (2) prove that God’s will for us is significantly different from what the Bible portrays.” in a future column that may or may not be written. I write the weekly column “Dawn of a New Day” for the McCook Daily Gazette http://www.mccookgazette.com and may have need of this concise statement at some point in time. And if so, how do I give attribution?
Again, thank you so much for your gentle response.
July 23, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Greg
Dawn, you have my permission to use my quote in your article (although “entire” should have been “entirely”; my bad). To give credit, I think all you do is give the address of the original article, the date of the comment, and the poster’s screen name.
A few years ago, I got hooked into debating on Amazon’s Christianity forum. I witnessed so much animosity and ridicule, that it eventually drove me away. It taught me a lasting lesson in speaking the truth in humility and kindness. It’s not always achieved, but that’s the goal.
I browsed through some of your posts and enjoyed them. If you like, you can visit my blog: http://www.jesusiswonderful.com. I’ve been too busy to post for a while, but I hope that Fall will bring more time for that. It’s my main avenue of ministry.
September 18, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Greg
When I was in highschool, one of my classmates killed herself. I didn’t know her hardly at all, but she sat in front of me in math class, and one day I noticed she wrote the following words in her notebook: “Do I want to live? No. Do I want to kill myself? Yes.” I asked her about it, but she just smiled and dismissed it. That evening, she shot herself. Hers is still the only funeral I’ve ever attended. I think about her sometimes. I wonder if there is anything I could (or should) have done, to save her life. Found out later that she had a history of suicide attempts, so by telling a grownup what I saw, I might have saved her.
It must be very common, after a tragedy like that, to either blame yourself or someone else. But we don’t have perfect knowledge of what the right thing to do is, in every situation, or what people are thinking.
That’s why Jesus kept it simple. He said that everything God has ever asked us to do rests on two principles: love God above all else, and love others as yourself. Another way of putting it would be: don’t put stock in things that can be destroyed or taken away from you, and quit being selfish.
The God of the Christians is perfect love, far above and beyond any limited shadow of it, that we can muster on our own. I find it so sad that it gets so twisted by the world, and labeled as intolerant, judgmental, or bigoted.
September 29, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Robin Kameron
Apparently its college lameo night. 5 guys come to the course and reek of weed and 3 of them have plaid shirts on. Thats 60%!
February 7, 2010 at 8:30 pm
camper
That’s a nice blog
March 30, 2010 at 4:17 pm
seeker
Hi. I have added you to my blog. Will you add me to yours? Thank you very much!
August 24, 2010 at 5:34 am
george arakkathara
nice blog. keep it up
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