Web Log of T. Rocco Hepp

 

My Dove Loves Me

3/11/08

Just before bedtime on Saturday, March 8, I noticed my precious wife typing at our PC. Soon after she finished, she told me that I had received an e-mail from "some girl." So I checked my account. Indeed, I had, from the most wonderful girl on the planet. She wrote:

My precious husband,

You are such a happy person, and You fill me with happiness.

Being near you is the highlight of my day, and I can't bear for us to be apart.

You are so wise and intelligent, and I love learning from you.

You are so bold in sharing the Gospel, and You inspire me.

You are downright hilarious, and You make me laugh every day.

The lean lines of your body remind me of a fine marble statue, and You make me lustful after you.

Your love and affection have changed my life, and I want to spend the rest of it holding your hand.

Your love for me is "infinite," and I want to spend the rest of our lives showing you that mine is, too.

I love you, honey. Now, and forever.

Your Wife

I am blessed beyond measure. Thank you Lord.

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Warning from the Massachusetts Attorney General

3/10/08

In January of 2006, I purchased a Glock model 33 handgun from a business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was living in Indiana at the time. An information card from the Massachusetts attorney general was included with the weapon, probably because the out-of-state dealer might sell a Glock handgun to a Massachusetts resident.

Front Side:

Back Side:

I wrote the attorney general, who was then a man named Tom Reilly. I have pasted our e-mail correspondence below. My letters are blue; the AG office's are dark green.

From: Tony Hepp [mailto:tony@troccohepp.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 4:56 PM
To: ago@ago.state.ma.us
Subject: handgun warning document

Dear Mr. Reilly,

I recently purchased a Glock handgun.  Accompanying the weapon is a packet of documents, including one titled "WARNING FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY
GENERAL."  Are you responsible (at least in part) for requiring Glock to provide this card to its customers?  If so, you ought to repeal the law and repent of your grave ignorance of the facts regarding handgun related deaths in America.  If not, you ought to work to have the law eradicated.

You say, "In addition, there are more than a thousand suicides each year by younger children and teenagers who get access to firearms."  What is the source of the information behind this assertion?

How do you know ("know" meaning justified, true, belief...not conjecture) "It is likely that many more children sustain serious wounds, [sic] or inflict such wounds accidentally on others"?

Have you taken the time to read either of John Lott's scholarly books on the subject of guns in America?  They are More Guns, Less Crime and The Bias Against Guns?  If so, I'd like to challenge your and your associates' understanding of guns and their effects on our society.  If not, please take the time to read the books so that you are able to rationally discuss the matter.

I've included a free gun facts file for you to start learning a bit of the truth about handguns in this country.  I realize you're busy.  But your business is no excuse for ignorance, especially laws based on ignorance.

Sincerely,

Tony Rocco Hepp
502-303-4438 (mobile)

Not having received a response in over a month, I sent the following short message to the AG office.

From: Tony Hepp [mailto:tony@troccohepp.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 5:23 PM
To: ago@ago.state.ma.us
Subject: handgun warning document

I never received a reply to my message to Mr. Reilly. See below, please. Why?

Sincerely,

Tony Hepp

An anonymous author sent me an e-mail on the following day.

Mr. Hepp,

Thank you for contacting the Office of Attorney General Tom Reilly.

For more information regarding glock handgun sales in Massachusetts, please refer to the Attorney General's Consumer Advisory by clicking on the below link:

http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=1699

We hope that you find this information helpful.

Sincerely,
External Affairs

I responded to this letter on May 26, 2007.

Dear External Affairs:

A new AG was apparently elected since I first wrote the office. Note the new AG--Martha Coakley--in the office's reply below.

The AG did not reply to my last letter below.

If the consequences of the Massachusetts attorney general's beliefs did not lead to increased murder rates, rape, and other violent crimes, they would be laughable. But his/her beliefs have tragic consequences such as these. Gun control laws and gun locks provide absolutely no benefit to society in spite of the AG's claims. The laws and locks actually endanger a society. Notice the office would not (because they could not) provide any credible sources to substantiate its claims. The AG posits "there are more than a thousand suicides each year by younger children and teenagers who get access to firearms. Hundreds more die from accidental discharge." Upon what are these frightening, dogmatic assertions made? The research of educated statisticians? No. CDC data? No. The scholarly work of demographics experts? No. Gas from the Mexican food that the Massachusetts legislators ate the night before they ratified these laws? Maybe. Reports from the ultra-biased, anti-gun media giants such as NBC, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC? Probably. Gut feel? Most likely.

Everyone who has actually done the research or has read the scholars who have done the research knows the answer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 78,190,000 persons living in the U.S. in 1999 who were 19 years old or younger. Forty-five persons of this group of people died that year from accidental handgun discharge. The MA AG office has access to this data, yet they claim "hundreds die from accidental discharge." It goes without saying that the leaders of a state are held to a much stricter standard for honesty and accuracy. The MA AG has failed in his/her duty; somebody needs to be fired. Some persons may say at this point, "Who cares?! Forty-five kids are forty-five too many!" The ignoramuses who make such statements should then also seek to outlaw children from walking, bicycling, taking baths, swimming, and riding in or driving automobiles. They should also ban the ownership of five-gallon plastic buckets.

In 1999, 1286 persons between the ages of 0 and 19 years drowned; 256 died while bicycling; 7803 died in a motor vehicle (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). "Ninety-three children under ten drowned in bathtubs; another thirty-six under age five drowned in five-gallon plastic water buckets. More children under five drown in this one type of water bucket than children under ten die from any type of accidental gunshot" (Lott, 83-84). Why isn't the Million Mom Organization seeking to outlaw buckets and bathtubs? Common answer: "The benefits of buckets and bathtubs outweigh their negative consequences. Handguns in homes of children have no benefits." Wrong again! The MMO is one of the many emotion-driven, irrational anti-gun groups in America.

What about the MA AG's claim that "there are more than a thousand suicides each year by younger children and teenagers who get access to firearms"? According to Dr. Lott, "one finds no positive statistically significant relationships between gun ownership rates and either accidental gun deaths or suicides for all ages" (Lott, 179, emphasis mine). Using household gun ownership rates from 1978 to 1998, Lott shows the percent increase in suicide gun deaths from increasing the household gun ownership rate by one percentage point is -0.06% for children under 15 years of age and 0.1% for children between 15 and 19 years of age. The MA AG is guilty of another falsehood.

Lastly, "a device that fully blocks [gun] use by unauthorized users" (a.k.a. a gun lock) increases crime and fails to produce any significant change in accidental gun deaths or suicides (Lott, 189). "My [Lott's] most conservative estimates show that safe storage laws resulted in 3,378 more rapes, 21,000 more robberies, and 49,733 more burglaries annually in the fifteen states with these laws" (ibid). The MA AG and other American politicians need to repent. There is no societal benefit to gun control laws or the promulgation of bogus information such as that which is on the card above.

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Robert George--"Defender of the Faith"?

3/8/08

In the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia (groups of Christians in Galatia), he wrote, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed [damned]! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ" (Gal 1:6-10, NASB). Unlike many leaders in the church today, Paul was anything but a man-pleaser. His mission was to be pleasing to Jesus (2 Cor 5:9). According to this ambition, he was very concerned that the content of the gospel, which was directly revealed to him (Gal 1:12), not be changed.

Jude, another author of the Bible, said in a letter to all Christians, "Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 1:3, NASB). The faith that was "once for all handed down to the saints" is the same faith that Paul preached, the core of which is without doubt the "gospel of Christ" (Gal 1:7, NASB). Following Jude's instruction, therefore, all Christians are to defend the faith.

I have italicized "Christians" in the paragraphs above for a reason. To be a defender of the faith, one must be a member of the faith. (Yes, I know; this seems obvious. I'm not intending to insult your intelligence.) Note Jude did not urge his audience to contend earnestly for the ethical principles of the faith or the moral prescriptions of the faith or the church's societal obligations. No, he and Peter (1 Pet 1:1-2; 3:15) commanded Christians to defend the faith.

At least since the formulation of the decrees of the sixteenth-century Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church has disqualified itself from being labeled "Christian." Among the Council's many heresies is its belief that sinners are not justified in the sight of God by faith alone. Faith in Jesus is necessary but not sufficient. One must do good works in order to merit the merits of Jesus Christ (i.e., his death and perfect life). The doctrine of justification is the heart of the gospel. Receive and obey the Scripture's teaching concerning it; go to heaven. Reject the Scripture's teaching on it; go to hell. "Martin Luther described the doctrine of justification by faith as articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae--the article of faith that decides whether the church is standing or falling. By this he meant that when this doctrine is understood, believed, and preached, as it was in New Testament times, the church stands in the grace of God and is alive; but where it is neglected, overlaid, or denied, as it was in mediaeval Catholicism, the church falls from grace and its life drains away, leaving it in a state of darkness and death. The reason why the Reformation happened, and Protestant churches came into being, was that Luther and his fellow Reformers believed completely in this respect that no faithful Christian could with a good conscience continue within her ranks" (J. I. Packer). True Romanists are not Christians. Notice the introductory adjective in the previous sentence--"true." Just as there are some Mormons who are Christians in spite of their church's false message of salvation, there are some Roman Catholics who are Christians. (I have met at least one member of the apostate organization who I believe is saved; I commanded him to leave the church immediately.) They are Catholics in name only.

As some of you know, I earned a Master of Divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky in August of 2007. The professors of Southern are smart. They well understand justification, the Reformation, and the history and theology of the Roman Catholic Church. And being a Protestant, evangelical institution, the faculty agrees with what I have written above.

OK, I'll get to the point of this blog entry. Dr. Robert George delivered the Norton Lectures at Southern during the spring 2007 semester. On February 9, before his third lecture entitled "Democracy, Morality, and Judicial Usurpation," Richard Land introduced Dr. George as "a defender of the faith once delivered to the saints." Yes, you may want to read that again. My wife was seated to my left, and a close friend to my right. We looked at each other in utter dismay. Even more to my horror was the complete lack of outrage in the facial expressions or whispers of those in attendance. We were seated in the rear of the hall, so we had a good view of the audience.

Many Americans know Dr. Land. He is a well-educated, adult Christian, and I applaud him for much of his work. But on this day, he seriously sinned against God and everyone who heard him. How so? He publicly stated a falsehood--Dr. George is "a defender of the faith once delivered to the saints"--and he seriously misled several hundred seminary students by undermining the heart of the gospel--sinners are justified by faith alone. As I admitted above, it is possible that Dr. George is a bona fide Christian. But this is highly unlikely given his education and relationship to the R.C.Ch. And as we all know, perception is reality until proven otherwise. So on the campus of what I believe is the largest evangelical seminary on the planet, a well-known Southern Baptist leader commended a Romanist for defending "the faith" that the Romanist and the church of which he is a member condemns. This is ecumenism run amuck.

Dr. Land could have rightly commended Dr. George for being a defender of Christian morality, but that isn't what he did. He knows it and the teachers of Southern know it. Yet, to my knowledge, nothing was said by the faculty or administration of the school to correct Dr. Land's egregious comment. Why? Why didn't one of the many faculty members and administrators in attendance correct Dr. Land from the lectern that day? The school's failure to address Dr. Land's comment is completely unacceptable. May God grant to them who are aware of what was said repentance from their cowardice.

If you listen to the aforementioned lecture, you'll not hear Dr. Land's introductory remarks. They are conspicuously absent. You may ask, "Why are you sounding this alarm now? Why didn't you say something sooner?" Good question. Perhaps I am guilty of the same sin as the faculty members. Why didn't I stand up and exclaim, "Heresy! Sheer heresy!"? I then had six months of coursework to complete in order to graduate. Such an outburst may have led to an early dismissal. Does this mean I was afraid of man? Had I stopped fearing the Lord to achieve academic "success"? Forgive me Lord.

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Praise Yahweh for John Lott, Jr.!

3/1/08

I don't know if Dr. Lott is a Christian. Nonetheless, I am very thankful to God for the ways that He has used Lott in helping me to understand the facts concerning gun control. A few days ago, I finished his excellent work The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong. I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Lott on 4/16/03 at a bookstore in Plano, TX. I only know the exact day of our meeting because he wrote it on the first page, along with his signature.

As I once told some friends of mine, the issue of gun control should in principle be taken as seriously as abortion. Why? The state's decision to permit parents to kill their unborn child has led to the death of millions of innocent persons since 1973. Similarly, the state's decision to restrict the right of a law abiding citizen to "keep and bear arms" has led to the death of millions of innocent persons. Don't believe me? On what basis do you disagree: your feelings? the tripe you've been fed by the prejudiced morons of America's major news outlets? the deceivers of Americans for Gun Safety, the Brady Campaign, or the Million Mom Organization? Rational people act on the basis of reasoning that corresponds to reality, not emotions, speculation, or bogus statistics.

Lott proves that gun control laws cost lives. Contrary to popular opinion, the lawful use of guns, handguns in particular, saves many more lives every day in America than the criminal use of guns. "A survey that I conducted of 1,015 people during November and December 2002 indicates that 2.3 million defensive gun uses occurred over the previous year" (Lott, The Bias Against Guns, 22). The gun didn't even have to be discharged in 98% of the cases. In agreement with a 2004 National Academy of Sciences' report, Lott shows there are no benefits to restricting gun ownership, including the carrying of concealed handguns.

The second amendment of the U.S. Constitution, gun control, etc. aren't simply political matters; they are ethical. And in 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul told the church at Corinth, "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (NASB, emphasis mine). Voting for or against gun control legislation is part of the "whatever you do" in Paul's command. Christians are not permitted to disregard or treat lightly the subject of guns. Some believers may retort, "With Paul, I'll spend my time knowing nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Evangelism and preaching will be my focus!" This sounds spiritual but is wrongheaded. How do you preach the gospel to your neighbor if he's dead because he was unable to defend himself against a pack of reprobates in a mall parking lot? How do you preach the gospel to those who have been shot and killed in one of the many "gun free safe zones" of our country because the victims obeyed a law for whom the law was not designed? Think! I don't oppose gun control advocates and carry a handgun because I thrive on independence and power. I carry a handgun, first and foremost, because I love my neighbor. More could be said. If you're interested in chatting, write me.

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Deaconesses: Biblical or Modern-Day Theological Compromise

2/21/08

A new theology paper on the subject of deacons is available at http://www.troccohepp.com/PDFs/Deacon%20Paper%20by%20Ditch%202-21-08%20edit.pdf. Many thanks to the author, Matt Ditch, for his hard work. May God bless him for his service to the church of God.

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Worst Radio Station Ever

2/20/08

I've visited or lived in a dozen countries around the world, so I've heard a wide variety of music on many different radio stations. Since moving to Houston, Texas, my wife and I have experienced a few new things. One of those new things for me is a new worst radio station, one that I bet will hold the title until my death. 94.5 FM - The Buzz is without a doubt the greatest musical abortion that depraved man has ever created. The noetic effects of the Fall are clearly manifest in this station's choice of music and talk. The "music" played by The Buzz is cacophonous bawdry at best. I can tolerate (and sometimes appreciate) someone who is crass and witty but not crass and base.

I estimate the cumulative IQ of the singers played on and the DJ's employed by The Buzz to be 75 on a good day. Maybe this is why the same songs are played ad nauseam.

All but a few of the "artists" sound like they drank a pint of sulfuric acid and smoked a doobie immediately before recording their tripe. Art is indeed a reflection of the culture that produced it. Americans are getting dumber and more morally desensitized every day. So it's no surprise that the contemporary music of The Buzz is stupid and lewd. Many pagans of the yesteryear could actually produce quality music and songs. Where has the common grace gone? It appears Yahweh, for good reason, is throttling it.

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Angie's "Doodling"

2/18/08

In a matter of minutes during a slow period at her former workplace, my dove created this work of art. Its beauty reminds me of her own.

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Open Letter to Troy Wathen of Providence Classical School

2/15/08

"The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him" (Prov 18:17, NASB). On December 17, 2007, I was fired from my teaching position at Providence Classical School of Spring, Texas. In retrospect, this was a great blessing from the Lord. Soon after my termination, I asked my former boss to tell me the exact reason(s) for my termination. He was unclear in my "exit interview." His reasons and my response to them are in this letter that I sent to him (Troy) on December 26, 2007. Not surprisingly, he hasn't accepted my challenge to a public debate. In fact, I received no reply from him or any of the school's board members.

My wife and I moved to Spring, Texas last August so that I could begin teaching College Algebra, Physical Science, and Christian at PCS. Apparently, God had other plans for us. While I would not want to repeat my experience at PCS, I learned some very valuable lessons from this trial. I am thankful the Lord's ways are perfect and cannot be thwarted (Job 42).

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First Entry

2/15/08

Hello! I've finally capitulated to my heart's desire to share an occasional thought with the world. Because I've got much more work to do on my web site today, you'll have to wait 'til later to read my first real blog entry.

Sincerely,

Tony

Copyright © Tony R. Hepp - 2010