My Shibboleth Blog: Favorite Quotes

"Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it" ~George Santayana

"All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing"~Edmund Burke

"We shall all hang together or we shall hang separately" ~Benjamin Franklin

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible”. ~George Washington

"Democracy is wholly inappropriate for any other than a moral people" ~John Adams

“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
~Alexis de Tocqueville

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito" ~African Proverb

(Modern man has) "educated himself into imbecility and polluted himself into stupefaction".~Malcom Muggeridge

"To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it"~Joel C. Rosenberg

"In Essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love" ~St. Augustine (354-430 AD)

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."~C.S. Lewis

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish" ~Mother Teresa

"He who saves a single soul , saves the world entire" ~The Talmud (inscribed on Oskar Schindler's ring)

Why Shibboleth?...

shibboleth [ˈʃɪbəˌlɛθ] n 1. a belief, principle, or practice which is commonly adhered to but which is thought by some people to be inappropriate or out of date rallying cry, war cry, watchword, battle cry, cry - a slogan used to rally support for a cause; "a cry to arms"

Shibboleth is a Hebrew word found in Judges 12:6. This Old Testament Bible story is quite fascinating and remarkable. When travelers wanted to cross over the Jordan River, sentries would ask them to pronounce the Hebrew word “Shibboleth." If they were of Hebrew (Jehovah/God) descent, they could correctly pronounce the “Sh” sound in the word. If they were not of Hebrew descent (Pagans), the sound would come out like “SS” or “ssibboleth,” whereupon they would be promptly executed as a spy or a foreign invader. In more modern times, we have utilized Shibboleths in war. During World War II, the word “lollapalooza” was sometimes used by US soldiers in the Pacific to “out” Japanese spies or enemy combatants. This was predicated on the correct assumption that someone of Asian descent would have difficulty pronouncing the letter “L” as well as the letter “R." The meaning of the word lollapalooza was also quite an esoteric concept to grasp, one that would only be readily understood by people well-familiarized with the American culture and language. If the beginning pronunciation came out sounding something like “rorra,” soldiers would open fire without asking any further questions to avoid American casualties. One last additional interesting history footnote: German Jewish descendants also had a difficult time saying the “sh” sound in Hebrew and again it came out sounding like “ss.” Is it a strange coincidence that the Nazi group most readily associated with atrocities against the Jewish race was named the “SS”?

Something to think about.

Today, in common language usage, a shibboleth has a larger meaning, referring to a word or phrase that distinguishes members of a group from outsiders. Its original root meaning also refers to a“stream” or “river.” A secondary meaning is "battle or war cry." Thus, the meaning of this blog name. I have often found that Sanctity of Life viewpoints cannot always be understood by the outsider. If you are coming from a strictly humanistic viewpoint, it may seem like nonsense to you. However, once you listen with your heart instead of your head (human reasoning), it becomes as shockingly clear as the difference between night and day or, as I like to point out, between LIFE and DEATH. So, I invite you to cross over the Jordan with me. Open your heart and your mind to the idea that each of us is a unique and special masterpiece created in the image of God. This is my battle-cry: that we may start out individually as a stream. It is my prayer that together we become a raging river.

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My Shibboleth Blog

Favorite Quotes

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