May 2019 – HillFaith

JOBS: Getting In The Door On Capitol Hill

By Bret Bernhardt

Securing a meeting with your prospective employer is an important step in the process of landing a job on Capitol Hill.

Bret Bernhardt, former chief of staff for senators Don Nickles and Jim DeMint.

Before we get into the mechanics, it’s important to recognize that looking for a job is one of the most stressful things you will do in your professional life. After all, you are trying to “sell” yourself. And what if they don’t like what you are selling?

You are confronted with the prospect of rejection, as well as acceptance, every time you are considered for a position. Dealing with this will be the topic for deeper discussion later but it’s important to keep this in mind now: Embrace the value God has given you while practicing confident humility.

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THINK ABOUT THIS: Ever Wonder ‘Who Created God?’

The answer begins with understanding what it means to live outside of time

Astronomer Hugh Ross says the question of “who created God” is the query he is most often asked on social media. That’s understandable as every human being at one time or another likely has wondered the same thing.

Astronomer Hugh Ross. Screen shot from Reasons to Believe video.

“Every atheist scientist I’ve ever debated publicly has raised that issue,” Ross explains in a recent interview on Reasons to Believe. “There is a fallacy there. They are assuming that God is constrained in time like the universe is and all life in the universe.”

Ross notes that “any entity that is constrained to a single dimension of time, where time can’t be stopped or reversed, at some point must have a beginning or a creation event.”

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How A Young British Astronomer Proved Albert Einstein’s Theory Of Relativity

Yes, today is Memorial Day, but it’s also just two days short of the 100th anniversary of the proving of what has been termed the greatest scientific achievement by a single individual in the history of mankind.

Most famous equation in human history? Photo courtesy of Freerange.

That was when British Astronomer Arthur Eddington and two teams dispatched by the “Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of Britain to observe and record photographically the full solar eclipse scheduled to take place on May 29, 1919,” according to Professor of Political Science Emeritus Salim Mansur, writing today on American Thinker.

“At the time under Portuguese rule, Principe was selected as one of the two sites – the other was Sobral in the Brazilian Nordeste – from where the total solar eclipse and its full effect could be best observed. The expedition was proposed by Eddington, a rising star among British astronomers, to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity published in the middle of the Great War.”

All sorts of things happened — not the least of which was inclement weather — that could have left the mission a failure. But Eddington was able to overcome the obstacles and completed the photographic work required to test Einstein’s theory.

It’s a fascinating and significant story and one I suspect you will thoroughly enjoy reading on this holiday Monday.

Happy Memorial Day!

If you work on Capitol Hill, you know that Memorial Day originated from the American Civil War, which cost more lives than any other conflict in the nation’s history.

Did you also know that at 3:00 PM on Memorial Day (May 27, the last Monday in May 2019), the nation officially pauses for a moment of remembrance for all those who have given their lives to protect freedom and the Constitution?

So whether you have travelled home to be with your family somewhere in Flyover Country or you and your loved ones gathered at the beach or in the mountains, or maybe your celebration happens at a place like Dewey Beach’s Bottle and Cork, remember, 3:00 PM on Memorial Day.

And take a few minutes to read this excellent piece in Roll Call about Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and the U.S. Army’s Old Guard, the unit that protects Arlington National Cemetery.

JOBS: Where Your Best Job Lead Is On Capitol Hill May Surprise You

By Bret Bernhardt

Conventional wisdom may say the best path to a good job on the Hill is through the hiring manager. That may be a chief of staff, legislative director, or state/district director.

However, there’s a surprise twist. More often than not, I have seen the best job leads for young and junior staff come not through senior staff, but rather their own peers.

As believers, we should know that community is very important. How often in the Scriptures is the fellowship of believers emphasized? This is no less true for you as you navigate, work, and live on and around Capitol Hill.

To this end, you will probably find the job you are seeking through a contact or connection with someone in your own age range or peer group. Take a look around and find out how your peers actually ended up in their first job on the Hill.

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Huge Surveys Of 11 Countries Find ‘Religious’ Couples Are Happiest

Conventional wisdom says liberation and autonomy are keys to happiness, but new study says better think again

A study by three scholars of data from two large surveys conducted in 11 countries encompassing the Americas, Europe and Oceania found that the happiest couples are the most religious.

Screen shot of cover of Institute for Family Studies report

“In many respects, this report indicates that faith is a force for good in contemporary family life in the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. Men and women who share an active religious life, for instance, enjoy higher levels of relationship quality and sexual satisfaction compared to their peers in secular or less/mixed religious relationships,” the authors report.

The study — “The Ties That Bind: Is Faith A Global Force For Good Or Ill In The Family?” — by co-authors W. Bradford Wilcox, Jason S. Carroll, and Laurie DeRose examined data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and the Global Family and Gender Survey (GFGS).

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Why Self-Assembling SmartPhones Are Coming And What They May Teach Us About … Well, Us

This could be a little difficult for some folks (me included) to wrap your mind around but imagine that your next Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy assembled itself, with no human or robot hands involved in the final process.

Self-assembling machines still require a brain to design them.
Photo courtesy Freerange.

No, that’s not science fiction speculation, but real-world technological progress. Super intelligent people at places like MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab are already working on turning the concept into reality and have come up with a pilot process, according to a smart guy who should know.

I don’t know about you, but I find that prospect absolutely fascinating because, if a self-assembly process is possible for a smartphone, the same cannot be far behind for … cars, computers, power plants, who knows what the limits might be or if there even are any limits.

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Abortion, Sex And Working On Capitol Hill

Okay, let’s talk about sex on Capitol Hill. There is a lot of it. Always has been, probably a lot more in the past than either the present realizes or the past is willing to admit. There was always a lot going on behind the alleged prudery.

Regardless of the frequency, sex on Capitol Hill among single people has consequences, as does sex between married and unmarried people. Try as we all might and have, sex is not something to be taken casually and recognizing that fact cannot be avoided, either.

It’s also impossible to avoid the issue of abortion, especially for those who work for Members of Congress and/or congressional committees. It’s a constant presence for everybody, those who are pro-abortion and those who are pro-life.

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Kristina Baum Is Running The Race Of Her Life

Imagine yourself fielding calls from journalists on your job while receiving cancer treatment in the hospital.

Spend a little time on Capitol Hill and odds are good that sooner or later you will see Kristina Baum running, either literally on one of her regular jogs or professionally as the Republican staff communications director for the House Natural Resources Committee.

To look at her striding along, you would not know she is battling cancer. And I don’t choose that term “battling” by chance. You will quickly see why in this superb interview with Baum by Roll Call’s Heard on the Hill reporter Kathryn Lyons.

Why Do You Persecute Me?

By Bret Bernhardt

How are we to respond when various threats are made against us as believers?

One such threat was discussed in this space — “TOLERANCE TODAY: Harvard Keynoter Said Jews, Christians Should Be ‘Locked Up’ For Their Views” — regarding a recent symposium in which a speaker previously advocated imprisoning Christians and Jews for their beliefs.

In today’s hyper-charged environment, these type of statements are becoming more frequent. It’s understandable how one would react when hearing something like this. For me, a sense of indignation, fear, and anger are the emotions I typically feel.

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What Would You Give To Know This Kind Of Freedom?

We talk often about freedom on Capitol Hill and there is no more defining value for this country than liberty, beginning with our Declaration of Independence that proclaimed it for the nation and for every individual American.

But freedom from political tyranny is only one aspect of the whole meaning of the word and, when fully understood, it reaches into every corner of our lives; body, mind and soul. Jesus said “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) What would it be like to experience that kind of freedom?

“No Longer Slaves” by Bethel Music gives us a great taste of what true freedom means. Listen to the song here, then read the lyrics that are reproduced below after the video. Trust me, it can make you think more deeply than you ever have about what it means to be genuinely free:

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Do All Roads Lead To God And Heaven Or Is Jesus The Only Way?

Among the most common objections to Christianity is that because there are multiple religions around the Earth claiming to point the way to Heaven, the politically correct conclusion is that “all roads lead to God.”

It’s a reassuring, comfortable idea because it means we each can make a choice from among a menu of spiritual options. This idea especially appeals to individualistic Americans who want to control all aspects of their lives and those who believe their intelligence and education gives them unique insights on such issues.

Each of the choices have consequences. If we choose Islam, for example, we must follow the five pillars. For those deciding the Jewish approach is right, there is the Talmud. Continue reading “Do All Roads Lead To God And Heaven Or Is Jesus The Only Way?”

This May Be The Single Most VIP Fact On Which Christians And Atheists Agree

Black and white, cats and dogs, Christians and atheists. These pairs are just about as opposite as it is possible to be. But there is one fact that is so basic, so essential to logic and clear-thinking, that Christians and atheists agree on it.

Twister, Master of the Tapscott household

(As for the other two pairs, our black Lab Twister definitely prefers his color and the company of other canines to that of, you know, those arrogant, self-absorbed furrballs.)

NBC “Dateline” cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace — author of the highly recommended “Cold Case Christianity” — explains what that most basic fact is while responding to a probing question from a college student about how to explain the existence of a god:

TOLERANCE TODAY: Harvard Keynoter Said Jews, Christians Should Be ‘Locked Up’ For Their Views

Things get ugly when permission to speak depends upon whether the hearer agrees with what is said

A recent keynote speaker at the Harvard University Art & Science Faculty Conference on Diversity told his Twitter followers in 2015 that people who base their spiritual beliefs on the Hebrew scriptures should be “locked up.”

Author and speaker Tim Wise went on in that tweet, saying “people basing their beliefs on the fable of Noah and the Ark, or their interpretation of Sodom and Gomorrah … rather than science or logic … If you are basing your morality on a fairy tale written thousands of years ago, you deserve to be locked up … detained for your utter inability to deal with reality … NO, we are not obligated to indulge your irrationality in the name of your religious freedom …”

Wise undoubtedly thinks everybody else — including those who accept the Hebrew scriptures and all other “fairy tales” — absolutely are obligated to respect his spiritual beliefs or lack thereof.

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This ‘Dime’s Worth’ Truly Makes All The Difference Between A Human Existence And Extinction

Sometimes the biggest variances result from the smallest details, even life or death, creation or destruction

You’ve probably heard somebody dismissively say something along the lines of “that doesn’t make a dime’s worth of difference to anybody or anything.”

Astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe.

And after all, a dime is worth only 10 cents. Or is it?

What if the weight of one single dime (created from nothing) was added to the universe? Guess what, it’s so finely adjusted to sustain life on this planet (and, who knows, maybe others as well) that such a dime would … what?

It would literally make all the difference in the world for you and I. Astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross explains why:

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