“…But Always Look For the Silver Lining…” Good Luck With That! (Follow-Up)

This is a follow-up post to “…But Always Look For the Silver Lining…” Good Luck With That! Please read the original before you read this post.

As I attempted to make clear in the first post, it would seem the power elite are selling the American middle-class down the river. The following portion of an article only reinforces this sense of things.

GE is supposed to be creating the “jobs of tomorrow”, but it seems that most of the “jobs of tomorrow” will not be located inside the United States.

The last GE factory in the U.S. that made light bulbs closed last September. The transition to the new CFL light bulbs was supposed to create a whole bunch of those “green jobs” that Barack Obama keeps talking about, but as an article in the Washington Post noted, that simply is not happening….

Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China.

But GE is far from alone in shipping jobs and economic infrastructure out of the United States. For example, big automakers such as Ford are being very aggressive in China. Ford is currently “building three factories in Chongqing as part of $1.6 billion investment that also includes another plant in Nanchang”.

Today, China accounts for approximately one out of every four vehicles sold worldwide. The big automakers consider the future to be in China.

Just a few decades ago, China was an economic joke and the U.S. economy was absolutely unparalleled.

But disastrous trade policies have opened up the door for a mammoth transfer of jobs, factories and wealth from the United States to China.

China has become an absolute powerhouse and America is rapidly declining.

Beautiful new infrastructure is going up all over China even as U.S. infrastructure rots and decays right in front of our eyes….

America is being deindustrialized at lightning speed and very few of our politicians seem to care.

Back in 1979, there were 19.5 million manufacturing jobs in the United States.

Today, there are 11.6 million.

That represents a decline of 40 percent during a time period when our overall population experienced tremendous growth.

We used to have the greatest manufacturing cities on the entire globe. The rest of the world was in awe of us.

Today, most of those formerly great manufacturing cities are decaying, rotting hellholes…

In Washington D.C. our politicians do not agree on much, but one thing they do agree on is that we need to keep shipping jobs out of the country.

Until the American people wake up and start demanding an end to the globalization of the U.S. economy, the job losses are just going to continue to get worse.

The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. If this trend continues, millions more Americans will soon be surviving on food stamps or living in tent cities…

Allowing big corporations and foreign governments to pay slave labor wages to workers on the other side of the globe making things that will be sold inside the United States is not a good thing. (emphasis added)

via GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, The Head Of Obama’s Jobs Council, Is Moving Jobs And Economic Infrastructure To China At A Blistering Pace.

If you read this entire article, and the links attached to it, you will begin to see what I was writing about in the last post. The American middle-class is being sold out by the power elite who own and operate our government and economic-system. America no longer has “…government of the people, by the people, for the people…” America is now a covert monarchy, a despotic covert monarchy that cares little to nothing for the people it rules over. Lincoln’s famous proclamation should now read, “…government OF THE WEALTHY AND POWERFUL FEW, BY THE WEALTHY AND POWERFUL FEW, FOR THE WEALTHY AND POWERFUL FEW shall not perish from the earth BUT RULE THE ENTIRE WORLD.”

The author of the article above still believes the American people can change all of this, if they wake up and do something about it. However, I believe the time for middle-class Americans to have awakened and changed all of this has long since passed. As I’ve written before, the American middle-class was warned, over the last two centuries, about the dangers of the wealthy and powerful seizing control of the government: Andrew Jackson warned of the dangers of a too powerful banking system, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and Dwight D. Eisenhower warned in 1961, in his last speech in office, to be cautious of the power of “the military-industrial complex.” The American middle-class never listened to either man, and now they are paying the price! Like Flounder, in Animal House, the American middle-class has chosen to remain “fat, drunk and stupid,” as well as uniformed/willfully-ignorant and patriotic to the point of total blindness: in other words, they (the “tea-party” and the like) lack almost all attributes needed to maintain a properly functioning democratic society. Supposedly, blind, stupid sheep cannot effectively take part in a democracy, so is it any wonder that this democracy is on its way out?

P.S.

Made in Everywhere But America!

While sitting in the doctor’s office today, I was looking through a Time magazine (May 2011), and I came across one of their little graphics: it showed an iPhone, and around it were dollar amounts showing which countries actually make money off of the product. There were several countries benefiting from the manufacture and sale of the iPhone, but guess who benefited the least out of these seven or eight countries listed? You guessed correctly, it’s the US of A! The US of A gets the benefit of just $11.00 from the manufacture and sale of a single iPhone, while Japan makes $61.00, and Germany, $30.00. Every other nation made at least 2 or 3 times as much as the US of A made, and when I say US of A, I mean the American worker, the common Joe, who can’t find a job anywhere worth having: a job worth having that would, with just a minimum benefits package, allow an American middle-class worker to earn enough to pay for his or her mortgage, car payment, utilities, insurances, taxes, education expenses, food, clothing and fuel costs, etc, etc. And we have an American corporation, Apple, one of the few corporations in this country still PRODUCING something, evidently sending most of its manufacturing jobs overseas, where slave-pay wages and inferior workmanship are the flavor of the day.

And to top this all off, the author of the short article makes the point that this is still good for America, since Apple is doing so well on Wall St. The blind, stupid, arrogance of this writer is beyond belief. Wall St, if anyone hasn’t noticed by now, is only good for 1 to 5% of Americans, the 1 to 5% who control, with despotic power, the wealth in this country. I feel sorry for middle-class Americans who still GAMBLE their money away on the stock market and 401ks. Go ask any middle-class American how they did on the stock market three years ago, and you will hear horror story after horror story. Yet the power elite wave 401ks and the stock market in front of working Americans’ noses (Americans who are still working, that is) to convince them they, too, can be rich. This is, of course, nothing but a bald-faced lie! In this country, as with most others, if you were born poor, then you’ll probably die poor. If you come from the middle-class, in the middle-class you will most likely stay, or else slip into poverty with the poor. The days of “We’re moving on up to the East Side” have long since passed away, except, of course, for the ten or twenty poor or middle-class folks who the elite pick to keep the suckers believing the lie.

“The American Dream” has mutated into nothing more than a “pyramid scheme.” A pyramid scheme where the few at the top, who run the show, promote a business opportunity to the common Joes (the suckers) to convince them that they, too, can become wealthy and successful business men and women.

(The schemers, at the top, make their money this way: everyone who adds more people to the pyramid gets a percentage of the sales from those people they have added, or recruited. So, the folks at the top, the instigators of the scheme, whether those further down are selling a lot or a little, are raking in their percentage of the sales from everyone who joined the pyramid after they did. The closer to the top of the pyramid, the more money is made, and, of course, the lower on the pyramid, even if a person is selling a great deal, the lower the amount of money made, but the more time, energy and money spent. Also the higher up the pyramid one sits, the higher percentage of sales he or she gets. This is the lie in the scheme: the sucker is told he can climb up the pyramid and thus get a higher percentage of everyone’s sales below him. This never happens, as far as the increase in money goes. My former wife was involved in one of these, and she reached a very high level (they usually give these levels names, like “silver level, gold level, diamond level,” etc}, but she was actually making less money than she had been when she first started. It’s a scheme, just like the American dream.}

All the common Joes have to do, according to the few, is keep spreading the word on this “wonderful business opportunity” (this corrupt and cruel lie) to ten or twenty other people. And the few at the top will allow these first Joes, and, perhaps, a few more, to achieve some moderate or even extreme success, which then keeps those Joes, further down the pyramid (the ten or twenty newbies per Joe), chomping at the bit. The fact is, only the top 1 to 5% (the few), who initiated the scheme, will make out like bandits. The common Joes (the suckers) will work their tails off and never get any further, financially, than where they began: in the real American Dream (the real nightmare), most Joes end up worse than where they began.

This scheme, to a great extent, is a description of “The American Dream,” and it’s about time us common Joes come to our senses and realize this government/economic-system is no longer our advocate! The American dream is over, and it, if the truth be told (which it hardly ever is in America), never really did exist as a possibility for every middle-class or poor American. Free enterprise (the small business owner) may still exist, but how long will the corporate criminal-elite allow free enterprise to continue? Remember, the elite want it all, and will do anything to get what they want!

You don’t know me but I’m your brother
I was raised here IN THIS LIVING HELL
You don’t know my kind in YOUR WORLD
Fairly soon the time will tell
You…telling me the things you’re gonna do for me
I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see

Takin’ it to the streets (takin’ it to the streets)
Takin’ it to the streets (no more need for runnin’)
Takin’ it to the streets (Oh, oh-oh, nah, nah)

Take this message to my brother
You will find him…everywhere
Wherever people live together
Tied in poverty’s despair
Are you…telling me the things you’re gonna do for me
I AIN’T BLIND AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO THINK I SEE

Takin’ it to the streets (takin’ it to the streets)

Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers)

Don’t be blind, folks! Don’t let “them” tell you what you see. Know and believe what you see by taking off “The American Dream” colored glasses, and facing reality!

P.S.

Speaking of the elite always getting what they want, just read the following short news item, and then click on the link below.

One Wisconsin Now says two-thirds of Wisconsin corporations don’t pay state income taxes

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s push for major cuts in education funding and state employee compensation rests on his claim of a fiscal emergency he traces mainly to government overspending.

But Democrats and liberal groups say skewed tax policies favoring the wealthy and business at the expense of the middle class are big factors in the state’s budget shortfalls.

Efforts to make that case have often centered on this phrase: “Two-thirds of Wisconsin corporations don’t pay state income taxes.” (emphasis added)

via PolitiFact Wisconsin | One Wisconsin Now says two-thirds of Wisconsin corporations don’t pay state income taxes.

The Looting Of America: The Federal Reserve Made $16 Trillion In Secret Loans To Their Bankster Friends And The Media Is Ignoring The Eye-Popping Corruption That Has Been Uncovered.

“…But Always Look For the Silver Lining…” Good Luck With That!

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

The Apostle Paul told Timothy, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” Many, including me, believe we’re living in those “last difficult days” that Paul spoke of. It seems that, for those of us not blinded by wealth, power, drugs, partying, perversions (the Hollywood scene-syndrome), there is much wrong, much turmoil, in this world. And this turmoil is most evident in nature and man’s government, economy and culture. The following is an article that speaks of the difficult time we are living in.

Madness: 39 Things That Are Driving Ordinary Americans Absolutely Crazy

Have you noticed that almost everyone seems really angry these days? Frustration with the government and with most of the other major institutions in our society seems to grow by the day. According to a brand new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 80 percent of Americans say that they are either dissatisfied or angry with the government. Americans are deeply divided about what the solutions to our problems are, but what almost everyone can agree on is that our problems are getting worse. Watching all of the madness that is going on in Washington D.C. and in our state capitals is almost enough to drive anyone absolutely crazy. Our nation is drowning in an ocean of debt, jobs are being shipped overseas at an alarming rate, thousands of stores are closing, poverty is exploding, greed has become a national pastime and corruption is seemingly everywhere. The American people are incredibly frustrated because the vast majority of our “leaders” appear to be too incompetent or too corrupt to deal with our problems.

#1 According to Newsweek, close to one out of every five American men between the ages of 25 and 54 does not have a job at the moment. So why is the “greatest economy on earth” unable to provide jobs for nearly 20 percent of the men that are in their prime working years?

#2 Last year, over a million homes were repossessed by financial institutions. This year a similar number of repossessions is expected. Sometimes these evictions are absolutely heartbreaking. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Newsweek article….

“To understand American anger, that roiling storm sometimes dubbed our national “mood,” spend a day with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Since 2006 the unlikely lawman—a tea drinker who listens to Bobby Kennedy speeches on his way to work—has overseen all foreclosures and evictions in the Chicago area, one of the hardest hit nationwide. The process does not always go well. One evictee shot himself in the head, remained conscious, and calmly tried to raise the pistol again as deputies battered the front door.”

#3 Companies like Netflix and Chipotle are significantly raising prices. Meanwhile, Ben Bernanke claims that there is hardly any inflation. He must not go grocery shopping much.

#4 The government keeps telling us that the economy is improving, and yet more stores keep closing. The Gap has announced that up to 200 stores will be closed over the next two years. Perkins has announced that they will be closing 58 restaurants. Borders has announced that they will be shutting down their remaining 399 stores and that 10,700 employees will lose their jobs. Yes, the economy is really buzzing right now. (emphasis added)

via Madness: 39 Things That Are Driving Ordinary Americans Absolutely Crazy.

I like this site because it gives out lots of details. But I can tell that it is nothing more than a conservative-republican site, since it is filled with far-right fairy-tale crap like this:

#30 One recent poll found that 72 percent of Americans believe that we are involved in too many wars. But the Obama administration seems to think that we should be “the police of the world” and they just keep getting the U.S. military involved in more conflicts.

This is the kind of American political crapola that makes me want to scream bloody murder. Who is this moron kidding? Obama, who I could care less about, inherited this economic mess and two wars from the Cheney administration (Bush Jr. wasn’t in control of anything). I really believe the far-right is either filled with really stupid people, or bald-faced liars and bigots, either way, it’s pretty bad!

If anyone out there still believes what Lincoln was pandering one-hundred and fifty years ago, “of the people, by the people, FOR the people,” then check this out:

…billionaire Howard Marks says that it is time for all of us to just accept that the standard of living of American workers is inevitably going to decline to the level of the rest of the world….

“In addition to balancing the budget and growing the economy, I think we have to accept that the coming decades are likely to see U.S. standards of living decline relative to the rest of the world. Unless our goods offer a better cost/benefit bargain, there’s no reason why American workers should continue to enjoy the same lifestyle advantage over workers in other countries. I just don’t expect to hear many politicians own up to this reality on the stump.” (emphasis added)

Broke! 10 Facts About The Financial Condition Of American Families That Will Blow Your Mind.

Which “people” was Lincoln referring to, the working middle-class men and women who actually built this country, or the wealthy and powerful elite, like Howie, who merely sat by (while getting more elitist) and watched as the work was being done? The motto of the elite (except, perhaps, for a few), since the beginning of this nation, has always been, “Work fascinates me, I can sit and watch it all day!” The Howies of this world, over the past three years of economic upheaval (for the middle-class and poor only), have made out like bandits. Imagine that, the very folks who were responsible for the economic meltdown of three years ago have been the only folks to benefit, and benefit greatly. God bless America???

Working-middle-class Americans who have worked for major corporations should have no problem understanding what I am saying here. The corporate elite are not equipped to do any of the real work in the corporations they supposedly oversee. The only thing these born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-the-mouth idiots can do is show up for work at noon, chase the secretary, eat or drink lunch, play golf, and, oh yes, actively seek to screw over their workers and everyone else who has no power/wealth in this country! Howie Marks doesn’t like the fact that American workers, through the power of organized labor, have, over the last century, become some of the highest paid workers in the world: workers (the majority in this country) who have had the chance to get ahead and enjoy life, as opposed to working solely for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful few.

{Unions came into existence, over one-hundred years ago, to protect the middle-class worker from the greed and power-mongering capitalist elite. Unions have always been a necessary evil, just like Kings, Queens, presidents/politicians, judges/attorneys, and cops. The travesties being perpetrated on the working class in America, from the industrial revolution to the turn of the twentieth-century, when organized labor’s presence was first being felt, were beyond the imagination: men, women, and children, were forced to work (if they wanted to keep living) seven days a week, twelve to eighteen hours a day, fifty-two weeks a year, and for an amount of money that would barely, if at all, keep a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and food in their guts. Meanwhile, the capitalist elite were becoming filthier and filthier in wealth and power. Organized labor was, thus, the deliverer and protector (in human form) of the American worker; it was a necessary evil standing between the American worker and the Godless and inhumane corporate elite, who placed wealth and power far above the sanctity of human life. Unfortunately, over the last half century, organized labor has become almost as corrupt as the evil it came into existence to stand against. However, collective bargaining is still the only protection standing between American workers and the greed mongers who would love nothing more than to go back to the old ways of “doing business,” when their fathers and grandfathers had complete freedom to horribly use and abuse American workers, and pay them next to nothing!}

A Willing Servant to the Whore of Babylon: A Satanic-Looking Pope!

Oh no, Howie, and the other billionaire boys, can’t have this anymore. They used working-class Americans to build their “financial empires,” and now, after selling American jobs overseas, they could care less what happens to the common man who made them wealthy and powerful: they are harlots, they use and abuse and then move on to another “john.” Howie and the boys want to take the American working man and woman back to the days of emperors and peasants, back to the days of slaves and slave owners. They want an Aryan/Nordic utopia, a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT/ECONOMY, where the “fit for life” (the elite) rule, and the “unfit for life” are either treated as beasts of burden or eliminated; if, that is, they can no longer perform their duties. And guess what, the middle-class is going to let Howie and the boys get this done. American middle-class folks can’t help themselves, this is their nature, their “manifest destiny,” as working, middle-class Americans. It is, in my opinion, the beginnings (“the birth pangs”) of what the Lord prophesied would happen at the end of this age:

1After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. 2And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. 3“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality…”

9“And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, 10standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’

11“And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes any more— 12cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet… and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes of horses and chariots AND SLAVES AND HUMAN LIVES. (Revelation 18: 1-11)

Who is this “whore of Babylon?” I believe it is the Satanic political/economic/religious/cultural system of this world. The system that we, as paupers and peasants, are ruled over and adversely effected by every day of our lives. Note that “slaves” and “human lives” are listed, and in last place of importance, as two parts of the “cargoes of the merchants of the earth.” According to our Lord, then, this is our position of importance in the eyes of the power elite, who, through Satan’s power and will, rule this dying world-system (the Whore of Babylon). We are even less than the cattle and sheep in the eyes and minds of the elite who rule over us… for now!

As I’ve said before, I know this has always been the way of this Satanic world-system, and someday soon the Lord will put an end to this extreme evil. And I also know that governments, for all intents and purposes, are all basically corrupt, so rebelling and beginning anew will never change anything: just look at China and Russia. No, I am not a communist or a socialist, nor am I a capitalist. I love the idea of free enterprise: the positive action of men and women producing a product they can take pride in, and which allows them, while serving others with their product, to make a decent living for themselves and their families. But free-enterprise, as I just described it, is dying in this country, and corporate capitalism is primarily to blame. Large food chains have put small, family-owned restaurants out of business, and the local music store has been replaced with an impersonal music supermarket that is owned and operated by a major corporation. The small business owner, the folks who helped build this country, are losing their businesses, because they can’t compete with the giant corporations. And that is the goal of Howie and the boys!

I have old (former) friends who are slaving away, day in and day out, in jobs they either have grown accustomed to or hate, and they will most likely be working at these jobs when the stroke or coronary takes them out of this life. They slave away, day in and day out, year in and year out, and yet all they get for this is more and more debt. Why is this? These folks are living “the American dream,” or so they BELIEVE (almost like belief in God). They’re not completely stupid and dead, since they sense something is wrong, but they seek counsel from the very people who have enslaved them in this evil system. They cling to their conservative ideals that are ruining their lives and killing them. The tea-partyers bark out an ignorant statement or command and these Pavlov-dog, working-class Americans simply salivate. This is beyond what I can make sense of, what I can comprehend. I have known, for many years now, that these former friends were anything but great thinkers, but I didn’t know they were mindless sheep who would dive off a cliff the minute their political leaders told them to!

When I was a kid, we were taught that communists indoctrinated their children in the ways of communism (“communist propaganda”). They told us this was an “evil thing,” and that, because of this indoctrination, Russian and Chinese children weren’t able to think and reason for themselves, we were coerced into believing they were nothing more than commie robots. But the capitalist elite, who have always controlled the education-system in this country, make those old “commies” look like babes in the woods, when it comes to the indoctrination of American children in capitalist propaganda. As bad as the teacher’s unions are, they are a necessary evil, because they, at the least, give a dissenting argument and view, from the capitalist propaganda, for parents and students to consider. Just to clarify, I can’t stand the liberal/Darwinian/sodomite/feminist/atheist philosophy of the teacher’s unions today, but they are a necessary evil, because they, to some extent, balance out the indoctrination of the capitalist-elite’s far-right propaganda.

Now, if we are not like the willfully-ignorant, brainwashed patriots, the “tea-partyers,” we should be able to discern that something unsettling is going on here, something that doesn’t bode well for the middle-class. We should be able to discern that Howie and friends are out to do away with the American middle-class. As I stated earlier in this post, the power elite have their greedy eyes and minds set on a higher prize than just ruling over this country. These power-brokers want to rule the world. In order for them to become the kings/merchants of this world, they must branch out into it. Why do you suppose they have been selling American middle-class jobs overseas? Beyond the cheap labor available there, the elite must make their powerful and wealthy presence known throughout the whole world they wish to conquer.

{Note: I have written this post in an attempt, once again, to wake up those who are in some kind of blind, patriotic (idolatrous) stupor. I AM NOT suggesting any kind of political or social rebellion here, since that would accomplish nothing but evil. In fact, I would encourage everyone not to participate in this government, period: no voting, no demonstrating, etc, since this kind of action should be contrary to the leading of our Spirit, if we’re in touch? As I stated above, check out Russia and China to see what happens when “the people” take over their corrupt government, nothing but evil! Besides, we are commanded, by the Creator, Lord, and Savior of this universe, to be submissive to the governments placed over us: “submissiveness” meaning obeying the law, and paying taxes, not pledging allegiance (making an oath, which Christ said was evil), or killing others in the name of our government. In other words, obey the laws of this land, until those laws become contrary to God’s law, and even then, we are not to defend ourselves but accept the penalty for obeying our Lord and Savior, first and foremost. Let us not react as hypocritically as the so-called founding fathers did, when they ignored the Word of God, which most of them refuted anyway, and rebelled against the King of England whom the Lord had put in place to rule over them!}

I will continue this in a follow-up post.

America’s “Paradise Lost”: “Yes We Can”? II

This is the follow up post to America’s “Paradise Lost”: “Yes We Can”?. You might want to read the first post before reading this!

While this country has attempted and failed to legislate what it considers to be “ethical” and “moral” behavior (“legislating morality”), over the last fifty years, and to manipulate and coerce its people into “valuing diversity”, through moronic and, thus, ineffective methods of culturally-relativistic indoctrination and terminology (multiculturalism, etc), it has, during this same time, managed to frustrate and infuriate the “silent majority” of Americans who helped build, fight for, and sustain, this country.

The same “silent majority of Americans” who have sat by, quietly and patiently, and watched as the postmodern/Darwinian “intellectuals” (the far-left fringe of reason and sanity: P.E.T.A., N.O.W., The Rainbow Coalition, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, etc) and the wealthy and powerful elite (“the tail that wags the dog”) have changed everything that was once considered, by the middle-class, to be the “accepted and normal” way of life in this country: 1 ) marriage between a man and a woman ONLY, 2 ) marriages that lasted more than six months, 3 ) babies born without fear of extreme, prejudicial termination, 4 ) men and women who were aware of their responsibilities as men and women, in the home and society, 5 ) a child’s values instilled by the parents and family, as opposed to the postmodern indoctrination of the Godless “village”, 6 ) an education system that actually taught children, as opposed to indoctrinating them with Godless, postmodern fairy tales, 7 ) a society that knew how to mind its own business, 8 ) a society where a person could speak his or her mind without being labeled a “racist”, “sexist” or “homophobe”, or being arrested for “hate speech” (“Big Brother” was still a character in a novel), 9 ) jobs given to the most qualified workers, not the workers with the “politically-correct” skin color, gender and/or “sexual-orientation”, 10 ) income and taxes that were more in line with sanity, for the employer and employee alike (“an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work”), 11 ) and a government that had every American’s back, not just the wealthy, powerful and “politically-correct” (or so the middle-class naively believed).

The majority of Americans (middle-class working people) have not always been correct in their thoughts and beliefs, but the issues I have just mentioned were the foundation on which they placed their misguided faith in this country; an American way of life they had known since childhood. Over the last half century, in particular, this foundation has all but vanished, which, in turn, has left the American majority in a state of cultural and political limbo.

{I have heard many middle-class Americans, over the years, make disparaging comments about monarchies, and how they would never put up with a king or queen ruling over their lives. These proud working-class Americans say they’re glad they live under a government that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. I have often wondered why these working-class Americans seem to be so devoid of reality, so devoid of the obvious truth. The fact of the matter is this, Americans are ruled by a monarchy, only it is hidden from view: the wealthy and powerful elite (the minority), just like a king or queen, rule over the government they have set up and control, thus they rule over the people who are governed. America is simply a monarchy that pretends, for its own survival’s sake, to be a democratic republic. Most Americans are either totally unaware of this, or they are in denial!}

When a government, which claims to equally represent all of its people, ceases to represent the majority’s welfare and will, then that government is in jeopardy of losing the support of the majority it governs; the majority that helped to build and sustain the country and government to begin with. Why would any middle-class working person (the “silent majority”), in this country, continue to support and even die for a government that only seeks to serve its “intellectual”, wealthy and powerful constituents: the elite few (the extreme minority) who control enough socio-economic and political power to put their “ace-in-the-holes” in office, the elite few who are never called on to be patriotic, to “make sacrifices”, to “keep America working” (as opposed to shipping American middle-class jobs overseas), or to fight the wars their government always seems to be embroiled in. The wars upon wars that ultimately allow for the wealthy and powerful elite to maintain the status quo, which, in their warped and ungodly reality, amounts to making lots of money by lying, cheating, stealing, and waging war on poor, third world countries. The wealthy and powerful elite who never pay their fair share in taxes (corporate and personal: in dollar amounts, not manipulated and misleading percentages). This shirking of tax responsibilities, by the OBSCENELY wealthy elite, leaves the majority of middle-class Americans, who can least afford it, to carry the weight of this government’s out-of-control economic debt; even though the middle-class working person is at the bottom of the pecking order, when it comes to benefiting from this corrupt economic system. For all but the wealthy elite, “taxation without (ANY) representation” is very much alive and well in “the good old U.S. of A.”.

As just one example of what I’m writing about, I just saw an interview with the woman who supervises T.A.R.P., and she was sharing that the major bank representatives were speaking of middle-class working-people, who have defaulted on their mortgages, as “being irresponsible”. She pointed out, and rightly so, that the banks have a double standard for what “being irresponsible” truly means, since the banks, in their greed-driven lack of responsibility, over the last twenty–plus–years, have been mainly responsible for the economic crisis that has placed most working-class people, today, in a position to be in foreclosure.

It is amazing to me that anyone, representing the American banking industry, could have the unmitigated audacity to suggest, in any way, that the very people they have helped to destroy, financially, are, now, somehow responsible for the economic disaster these bank representatives helped create. It is beyond belief to me, that is, until I remember the caliber of human being I’m dealing with here: human beings (unregenerate and “religious”) who only live to serve themselves and their worldly interests, human beings who would sell their own souls for a little more wealth and power, human beings who, in reality, help make this decaying and dying world what it is today!

With all of this said then, I’m afraid that, soon, the majority of middle-class working Americans are going to rise up and vent their immense frustration and bitterness on the very government that has been abusing and using them, economically and socially, for years now. I believe, as I said above, that we can see the birth pangs of this coming disaster beginning to take place every night on the evening news.

Americans shouldn’t place the blame for this country’s mess at the feet of President Obama, since he is simply following in the inept footsteps of his figure-head predecessors: he’s just another pawn in the political game being played-out by the elite few. Americans should place the blame where it belongs: on the elite few who control the government, and on themselves: middle-class Americans continue to play right into the hands of their elite tormentors, by responding like Pavlov’s dog every time there’s an election. The middle-class continues to flock like sheep to the elites’ next ace-in-the-hole candidate who will promise them anything and follow through on nothing. I guess most of the working folks in America have never heard this simple adage: “Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!”

“Yes we can!” My question is, Who is the “we” that Obama is speaking of here? For me, I don’t consider myself part of Obama’s “we” that “can”, since I don’t really fit in with the liberals’ political philosophy. But I also don’t fit in with the conservatives’ either. I guess I’m a man without a worldly country. I guess I’m a stranger, an alien, here, who is looking for a “better country, a heavenly one.”!

Unfortunately, there is no worldly answer to all that I’ve written here, as the Christ’s Spirit reveals. Nor am I certain that what I sense happening around me, now, will come to the fearful end I expect. The only thing I am truly certain of is this: the wealthy and powerful will remain the wealthy and powerful, and the working poor will remain the working poor, until this disgusting world passes away. But if our middle-class minds and hearts are set on the Lord and His Life for us, then whatever happens, here and now, will not, in the end, be capable of destroying us.

Hopefully, I am not the only person who senses I cannot put my faith in the system of this world any longer, which includes my country and government. My faith must remain with the One Who remains constant in my life, my Lord and Savior.

America’s “Paradise Lost”: “Yes We Can”?

"I have a Nightmare!"

I have stayed away from posting on purely political issues for quite a while now, but I can’t help noticing the many signs of social, political and religious divisions which seem to become more blatantly evident every day in this country:

“Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand…” (Matthew 12) (Jesus the Christ, not Abe Lincoln!)

Here is just one example of this division:

Tea Party Protests: ‘Ni**er,’ ‘Fa**ot’ Shouted At Members Of Congress

Abusive, derogatory and even racist behavior directed at House Democrats by Tea Party protesters on Saturday left several lawmakers in shock.

Preceding the president’s speech to a gathering of House Democrats, thousands of protesters descended around the Capitol to protest the passage of health care reform. The gathering quickly turned into abusive heckling, as members of Congress passing through Longworth House office building were subjected to epithets and even mild physical abuse.

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a ‘ni–er.’ And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a “faggot,” as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president’s speech, shrugged off the incident.

But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

“It was absolutely shocking to me,” Clyburn said, in response to a question from the Huffington Post. “Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday… I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit ins… And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus.” (emphasis added)

via Tea Party Protests: ‘Ni**er,’ ‘Fa**ot’ Shouted At Members Of Congress.

Congressman Clyburn states, “I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960…” I guess the congressman, over the last thirty years, in particular, has been living in some sort of protective bubble, where he evidently has never had the opportunity to hear “rap artists”, his so-called “brothers”, labeling themselves, and other African Americans, with this dehumanizing racist epithet? Being a congressman of these here united states, Mr. Clyburn’s total unawareness of the promoting of bigoted language, by his own fellow “black brothers and sisters”, is no surprise to me whatsoever, since almost all American politicians live a life somewhat devoid of reality and Truth. Like many Hollywood starlets, American politicians (all races, colors and creeds) live in some kind of fairy-tale world, where they can make up life as they go, and where no one is permitted to question their delusional state.

Getting back to the subject at hand, Mr. Clyburn, I believe, was not truly troubled by the dehumanizing epithets he heard, since he must have heard them, at least once, from his “own people” (African American quote), over the last half century. Mr. Clyburn, in truth, was most likely troubled by these words simply because they came out of the mouths of “white people”: the only folks on earth who are truly not allowed to use this kind of language. It is verboten for “whitey”, for “milk-toast”, for “white people”, for “crackers”, to use this kind of language. Only “people of color” (Blacks, African Americans) are permitted the use of this vile and hate-filled terminology. In essence, only African Americans, if they so choose, are permitted to carry on the not-so-fine American tradition of using language filled with racial hatred.

This, then, brings me to the first and foremost division I see in America today: a racial division that seems to be promoted much more by African Americans than “white people”. African Americans, the very people who have suffered the most from racial hatred in America, are the ones who, now, seem to be promoting its continuation. This is truly a conundrum: this is tantamount to a Jew, in 1930s Nazi Germany, referring to himself as a “kike”, or voluntarily wearing a star of David patch, and thus promoting more separation, fear and hatred between himself and all German gentiles: the good and the Nazi. To me, the promotion of this disgusting language, by African Americans, makes no sense at all, since to keep these kind of hateful terms alive, in my estimation, is to help keep bigotry alive and active as well.

{Note: many of us “crackers”, as we are disparagingly referred to by many African Americans, today, have spent the last forty–plus–years attempting to make amends for racial crimes perpetrated against African Americans (slavery, rape, lynchings, murders, civil rights violations): crimes that most of us detested and never had any part in, nor, with many of us, had our relatives before us. Over these last forty–plus–years, us “white people” have also had to endure listening to openly hateful and bigoted statements made about us by many African Americans, and with no means of defending ourselves whatsoever: to defend ourselves, in any way, was, and still is, to be labeled a “racist” or “bigot”, even though we were the ones, at the moment, being verbally, and sometimes physically, attacked for racist reasons. Some of us, who were supporters of civil rights in the ’60s, even to the point of being shunned by family and friends, have, since that time, withdrawn from seeking real relationships with African Americans; and for the very reasons I’ve stated above (mistrust: fear of rejection or worse). Hatred and bigotry is a disease of all mankind, not just “white people”!}

For most of my sixty years, American “white people”, like me, have sought to undue as much of the racial damage as we possibly could, through political and social means. It would appear now, in retrospect, that many of the African Americans, we were seeking to serve and help, were against us then and now, and solely because of our skin color. It seems to me, as well as many other “whiteys”, that many Black Americans, today, really have no desire for resolution of racial issues: they don’t want peace with “white people”, they want to keep the animosity, the racial tension, the suspicion and hatred (to be separated: segregated) just the way it always has been, or so it would appear from their words and actions. I cannot even begin to imagine why this would be, unless, of course, African Americans, overall, were, and still are, racist themselves, and they are somehow benefiting from the ways and means of this upside-down and backward political and social system; a corrupt system which always seems to be bending over backwards to appease them (“the squeaky wheel gets the oil” syndrome, perhaps)?

Birmingham, Alabama: 1963

For those out there who believe that racial hatred has been done away with, over the past fifty years, you might want to wake up and smell the coffee, or at least take off those conservative “I-see-nothing” blinders and liberal-Utopian rose-colored glasses: wake up all you “Totos” out there, this ain’t Kansas, but it just might be, once again, 1960′s Birmingham, Alabama! American racial hatred and bigotry, whether it be of Hispanic, Asian, Jew, or Black & White, origin, has never gone away. Racial hatred and bigotry, as opposed to being done away with, had, over the past half century, been driven underground by the far-left cultural relativist’s “political correctness” and “tolerance” (“the-tail-wagging-the-dog”), where it has, since that time, been festering, strengthening and waiting for its opportunity to resurface, in full force, and cause havoc: just like a volcano seemingly lies dormant for many years or even centuries, but deep inside the molten lava and gases are slowly and steadily building up immense pressure until the volcano suddenly erupts without warning. Hatred and bigotry cannot be silenced or drowned out by “politically correct” and “tolerant” coercion any more than a volcano can be extinguished with a flame thrower. Calling a person a bigot or racist will never make them change their mind about, or attitude towards, another person, it will only make them hate that person all the more: the Love of God begets Love and Peace, while the “politically-correct” and “tolerant” manipulations of unregenerate man begets frustrating silence, for a while, and then anger, hatred and violence.

Cutesy and effeminate Hollywood slogans and terminology may keep frustrated and angry people, of all ethnicities, silent for a moment in time, but they will never cure their hatred and bigotry. And, in the end, when hate-filled and bigoted people have been driven to their limit, and they will be, then there will be nothing beyond the Love, Truth and Power of God to stop them from venting their violent hatred on the very people they despise, and on those who had sought to silence them. “Shouting down” angry and frustrated people may work in an ivy covered, fairy-tale ridden university, where reality amounts to studying, partying, and keeping a job for doing nothing (tenured professors), but in the real world, “shouting down” an angry (middle-class) mob can put one’s own welfare in extreme jeopardy.

What I’m trying to say is this, the middle-class working “white person”, the “silent majority”, is quickly coming back to their political and social sense of being, and their awareness of how they’ve been ripped off by this government and society. This “silent majority” may also be on their way to a place of no return: a place where rational thinking and acting may be thrown aside for anger and violence. The beginnings of this can be seen in the politics of the conservative far-right, where a unity of purpose, right or wrong, is beginning to take hold of the very people, the majority of Americans (“white people”), who truly have the power, if they choose to use it, to decide whether this current government continues or not.

The “Tea Party” movement seems to be all fired up about the “socialistic tendencies” of the current administration, or so they claim. But where was their concern two years ago, when a white president set in motion the issues this current administration has to deal with? When approached with the suggestion that racism is at the heart of their movement, the leaders of the “Tea Party” vigorously deny the allegations. But, once again, where was this angry and vocal movement when George W was dragging the country down to its current political and economic position? The overt and hateful protests of this far-right group didn’t begin in earnest until an African American was elected to office. I don’t believe that all of this protest and anger is merely coincidental, or that fear of “socialism” is truly at the heart of this political movement’s complaints.

I believe, and sadly so, that the election of an African American president has been the catalyst for the resurfacing of blatant bigotry and hatred on the “God fearing” conservative right, and this blatant bigotry and hatred is being expressed through the “Tea Party” movement. I was hopeful that this wouldn’t be the case, but, after the past sixteen months, I have almost given up that hope. This “Tea Party” movement, which is plastered on news channels every evening, is, I believe, merely a sign, a beginning of birth pangs, of this resurfacing (resurgence) of overt racial hatred and violence in America; much like the racial hatred and violence we can see happening throughout the rest of this dying world:

Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. 2 And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 5 “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. 6 “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 “For NATION WILL RISE AGAINST NATION, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (Matthew 24)

“Nation will rise against Nation…” We use this word (nation) to refer to countries, but the Greek word for it, and how Jesus would have used it, is “ethnos”, which is where our words ethnic and ethnicity come from:

Ethnic:

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a sizable group of people sharing a common and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage.
2. Being a member of a particular ethnic group, especially belonging to a national group by heritage or culture but residing outside its national boundaries: ethnic Hungarians living in northern Serbia.

Our Lord is stating that, towards the end of this age, one of the “birth pangs” will be races (ethnic groups) warring against each other: the middle east, Bosnia, Africa, Malaysia, etc.

Americans, in particular, should take a good look around them, and they will see that their country is divided, racially: some states are seeking to secede from the union (check it out here), while militant conservatives, in the Dakotas and elsewhere, are raising up armed militias to overthrow the government (check it out here).

Perhaps, it’s time to place our faith in something more stable than this country? Perhaps, it’s time for us to place our faith in the One Who never changes: the Lord?

I will finish this in part II.

“A Deluding Influence” XII

"Politics ARE NOT the task of a Christian." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

{I have decided, from time to time, to post certain items that I sense (through my Spirit, hopefully) speak to many of the issues I write on. These will be short snippets (NOT ALWAYS), and I’ve decided to call them, “A Deluding Influence” (2 Thessalonians 2: 11)}

Here is just one more example of the deluding influence the Lord has sent to confound the apostate nominal “church” (Christendom).

February 3, 2010

Religious leaders worry that Obama’s faith council is for show

by Michelle Boorstein and William Wan

The Washington Post

A year ago, President Obama thrilled many religious Americans and worried some secular supporters by announcing that he would not only keep the faith-based infrastructure President Bush had constructed across the government but would expand it, adding a marquee council of faith leaders to advise him.

But as the council prepares to end its first term and issue its report, some faith leaders across the ideological spectrum — including some Obama allies — say the operation may be more about window dressing than results.

Critics say that the faith-based office isn’t enough of a priority at the White House and that faith leaders who were consulted regularly during the campaign are now simply copied on pro-forma e-mails. They complain that Obama is no longer using the faith language that he employed as a candidate to frame his policy goals, and that before the new faith council convened, some of the most controversial questions, including religious hiring and abortion, were taken off the table.

“We’re wondering if religiously driven voices really have a voice at the table,” said David Gushee, an evangelical ethicist who has been in regular contact with Obama’s team since the presidential campaign. And whether “gatekeepers around the president are thinking he has more important constituencies to pay attention to.” (emphasis added)

via Religion News: Religious leaders worry that Obama’s faith council is for show.

{Note: What in heaven’s name is an “Evangelical ethicist“? Where do we see the office or gift of “evangelical ethics” in scripture? Where can we even find the word “ethics” in the word of God? What a mess this nominal “church” religiosity is! What an apostate mockery of our Lord and His Truth!}

Hmm… let’s see, Obama supports “gay rights” and abortions (“a woman’s right to choose”), so why would anyone, in particular, those who believe in and seek the Lord, trust him to follow up on, in earnest, so-called “faith based” programs? Obama is the leader of the Darwinian/atheist left (the democratic party); shouldn’t this tell us something about his political and so-called “religious” leanings?

I believe an even more pertinent, and important, question is this one: why are we, if we truly are believers and seekers of Christ’s soon-coming Kingdom of the Heavens, so concerned about temporal and meaningless government programs; which will always fail, since they are devoid of the Power and Truth of our Lord and Savior?

What are “faith-based” programs anyway? Are they Divinely-inspired programs led by the Spirit of God, or are they “religious”-man inspired, and administered, programs? My guess is the latter, since these are the less-than-Spiritually inspired works of the Bush administration.

We might want to, once again, remember this warning from our Lord:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but HE WHO DOES THE WILL of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (Matthew 7)

A related story here:

Religion News: Gay groups pressure Obama over prayer breakfast.

“Strong Religious Beliefs”: America’s Version of Faith In God

The following Pew Forum article is a view of America’s “religious” politics from the perspective of the Irish secular press.

February 5, 2010

Obama keeps faith as prayer breakfast criticised

by Lara Marlowe

The Irish Times

The U.S. president, first lady, vice-president, secretary of state and a host of elected officials yesterday ignored appeals from government watchdogs, secularists and civil and gay rights movements that they boycott the National Prayer Breakfast.

Seventy-two per cent of Americans believe it is important that their president have “strong religious beliefs”, according to a 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Participating in the National Prayer Breakfast is an easy way to demonstrate those beliefs. It has been attended by every US president since 1953. Bono, Mother Teresa and Tony Blair have all been speakers.

But the breakfast came under a barrage of criticism this year because it is organised by a secretive evangelical group called the Family, or the Fellowship, which counts several Congressmen among its members and has tentacles overseas, notably in Africa.

David Bahati, the politician who drafted the so-called “gay death Bill” or “kill the gays Bill” that would make homosexuality punishable by death in some cases in Uganda, is believed to be a member of the Family. (emphasis added)

via Religion News: Obama keeps faith as prayer breakfast criticised.

Let me say first, I could care less what Ireland, or the rest of Great Britain, believes, or thinks, about “religious” political matters in America, since they are most likely as bad off, or worse (in the eyes of God), than the good old U.S. of A.! If they think America is bad off, Spiritually, then I would encourage them to take a good, long look inside themselves: “Physician, heal thyself!”

Now that I’ve said that, America still puts forth this false, and extremely hypocritical, picture of a “God fearing” nation, which not even England does anymore. So, because of this hypocritical stance, the U.S. of A. opens itself up to look like a complete fraud, which it is, when it comes to the issue of believing and seeking God and His Christ!

For example: “Seventy-two per cent of Americans believe it is important that their president have “strong religious beliefs” What?! Then why did the 72% allow Obama to be elected, since Barack is all over the place when it comes to what he believes, Spiritually: the president is a mere child, when it comes to the matters of the Lord and His Spirit, as are most of the 72%! And then there is this quote: “Participating in the National Prayer Breakfast is AN EASY WAY to demonstrate those beliefs.” So, then, all Barack has to do is eat breakfast at a “prayer” get-together, and he’s cool with the constituency? What a sad, and apostate, “religious” joke!

Here is another issue that puzzles me, if Americans are impressed with “strong religious beliefs”, then they should love the Taliban, Bin-Laden, and Al-qaeda, since all of these “religious” people, and their radical organizations, are willing to die for their beliefs; that’s a pretty good test of a “strong religious belief”, or at least it is to me!

Here is a Truth that I can hold tightly to; our Lord and Savior is not a “religion”! Our Lord and Savior is the Way to God, the Truth of God, and the Life of God!

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; NO ONE comes to the Father but through ME. (John 14: 6)

And those who know this Truth, His chosen sons and daughters, and seek Him first, the ones who do more than attend “church” and “tithe”, have no concerns with this country, its economic system, its government, and the so-called “strong religious beliefs” of its elected, and corrupted, officials.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8: )

“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For THE GENTILES (the unregenerate and pagan) EAGERLY SEEK all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6)

If “religious” Americans were really concerned about “strong religious beliefs”, then they would be more concerned with their own, and why they can so readily be led around by a corrupted government caught up in the concerns of this evil world-system! This kind of Spiritual self examination, of course, will probably never occur to them, nor ever take place:

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—UNLESS INDEED YOU FAIL THE TEST? (2 Corinthians 13: 5)

Another Example of Apostate Religiosity

"I Know Your deeds... Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock..."

I’m amazed that the “Christian-right” would be against health care reform. It seems that the “Christian-right” loves democracy and capitalism (“NO SOCIALISM,” is their cry) much more than they love and care about their fellow man. In fact, it is the liberal and Godless left that seems to be more compassionate, at least, in a political sense, about the health care needs of the disenfranchised in this country, as the following Pew Forum article reveals.

September 9, 2009

Opposition to Health-Care Reform Revives Christian Right

by Jacqueline L. Salmon

The Washington Post

The Christian right, facing questions before the presidential election about its continuing potency as a force for cultural and political change, has found new life with Barack Obama in office, particularly around health care.

As the president prepares to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night to press for health-care reform, conservative Christian leaders are rallying their troops to oppose him, with online town hall meetings, church gatherings, fundraising appeals, and e-mail and social networking campaigns. FRC Action, the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council, has scheduled a webcast Thursday night for tens of thousands of supporters in which House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other speakers will respond to the president’s health-care address.

“Movements do better when they have something to oppose,” said D. Michael Lindsay, a sociology professor at Rice University who studies evangelicals. “It’s easier to fundraise in those kinds of situations. It’s easier to mobilize volunteers because you have an us versus them mentality, and that plays very well right now for the Christian right.”(emphasis added)

via Religion News: Opposition to Health-Care Reform Revives Christian Right.

Do the following statements bother anyone else but me?

“The Christian right, facing questions before the presidential election about its continuing potency as a force for cultural and political change, has found new life with Barack Obama in office…”

“Christian leaders are rallying their troops to oppose him (Obama), with online town hall meetings, church gatherings, fundraising appeals, and e-mail and social networking campaigns…”

First of all, where is it stated in the word of God that believers (the Body of Christ) are to be “a force for cultural and political change” in this world? We are to shine as light in the darkness of this world, according to the word of God, but, as the word also exhorts, we are not to be bound together with the unregenerate who have been blinded, by Satan, to the truth and life of our Lord:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case THE GOD OF THIS WORLD (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4: 3, 4)

Therefore,

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now YOU ARE LIGHT IN THE LORD; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. DO NOT PARTICIPATE in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5: 6-13)

Do not be bound together with unbelievers (‘those who are perishing’); for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6: 14)

DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD NOR THE THINGS IN THE WORLD. IF ANYONE LOVES THE WORLD, THE LOVE OF THE FATHER IS NOT IN HIM. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. THE WORLD IS PASSING AWAY, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2: 15-17)

If the world system, which is passing away, is under the rule of “the god of this age” (Satan), and we are not to be “bound together” with his followers (the unregenerate) or “love the things” of his world system, then why would any true seeker of the Lord believe the Church, the Body of Christ, is to be “a force for cultural and political change” in this world? The “Religious Right” believes this lie, simply because they have been blinded by the god of this age and are, thus, Spiritually ignorant of the word of God.

“Christian leaders are rallying their troops to oppose him (Obama)…”

Secondly, with this quote in mind, what is our attitude, as believers (the Body of Christ), to be towards man’s government and officials, according to the word of God?

And Jesus said to them, “RENDER TO CAESAR the things that are Caesar’s, and TO GOD the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at Him. (Mark 12: 17)

EVERY PERSON IS TO BE IN SUBJECTION TO THE GOVERNING AUTHORITIES. For THERE IS NO AUTHORITY EXCEPT FROM GOD, and those which exist are established by God. (Romans 13: 1)

The only time we must stand against our government is when its statutes break the sovereign and eternal law of our Lord, and even then, we are not to attempt to change its statutes but simply, in a non-confrontational way, disobey them: even if disobeying means imprisonment or death. Our model for this attitude and behavior is our Lord. What would ultimately happen to Jesus would be unjust and corrupt, needless to say, but our Lord did not lift a finger to circumvent the authority of the Sanhedrin or Rome. And when Peter cut off the ear of the servant who had come to arrest Jesus, our Lord responded in this manner:

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? “How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26: 52-54)

Christendom and many of its followers, unfortunately, have their minds and hearts set on the affairs of unregenerate man and his father’s (Satan) worldly system. The American institutional “church” is focused on the constitution, capitalism and democracy, as opposed to the word of God and the leading of the Spirit. This “religious” version of God exists to serve the state government it finds itself ruled by, and thus the “church” has lost its saltiness (Luke 14: 34, 35), it has become lukewarm:

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ‘So because you are LUKEWARM, and neither hot nor cold, I WILL SPIT (VOMIT) YOU OUT OF MY MOUTH. ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that YOU ARE WRETCHED and MISERABLE and POOR and BLIND and NAKED, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that YOU MAY CLOTHE YOURSELF, and that THE SHAME OF YOUR NAKEDNESS will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes SO THAT YOU MAY SEE. ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. ‘Behold, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I WILL COME INTO HIM AND DINE WITH HIM, AND HE WITH ME. HE WHO OVERCOMES (this life and world, through the power and life of the Christ), I WILL GRANT TO HIM TO SIT DOWN WITH ME ON MY THRONE, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ‘HE WHO HAS AN EAR, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 3: 14-22)

Do we have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying and answer the door when our Lord knocks? Or are we too busy with the affairs of this world system and doctrines of apostate Christendom to listen and be set free by our Lord’s Truth and Life?

P.S.

If the “Christian right” is so desperate to stop government-reformed health care (“Obamacare”), then perhaps they should give up some of those billions of dollars, stashed-away in their “church” vaults and banks, and supply health care for the poor who can’t afford the cost of “wellness” in this filthy rich “one nation under God”?

“In a statement published in connection with a bond prospectus, the Boston archdiocese listed its assets at Six Hundred and Thirty-five Million ($635,891,004), which is 9.9 times its liabilities. This leaves a net worth of Five Hundred and Seventy-one million dollars ($571,704,953). It is not difficult to discover the truly astonishing wealth of the church, once we add the riches of the twenty-eight archdioceses and 122 dioceses of the U.S.A., some of which are even wealthier than that of Boston. (emphasis added)

via The Pope: Richest man on earth?.

Instead of building another obnoxious crystal cathedral (where the Lord will never venture anyway!), why not take this 60% of one billion dollars, as well as other denominations’ and diocese’ ill-gotten gain (from tithing, bingo, telethon profits, etc),

“Is it not written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” (Mark 11: 17)

and invest it in the health care system? After all, the true church, the Body of Christ, according to the word of God, is not to “store up treasure on earth”, but it is to, first and foremost, care for a person’s physical needs before their Spiritual:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6: 19-21)

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. (James 2: 14-17)

This will never happen, of course, since the institutional “church” (Christendom) is not the (true) Body of Christ, and, thus, it will never be led by the Spirit and be capable of (rightly) discerning and submitting to the word of God!

Another Reason to Home-School!

The apostle, Paul, said to Timothy,

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.

Grace be with you. (1 Timothy 6: 17-21)

As usual, there seems to be a different agenda among the liberals in Washington for attaining knowledge and wisdom.

Educational Snow Flakes

Paul Jacob

Up north, it snows enough that schools can’t just close every time a few flakes fall. But I live in Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, and it doesn’t snow that much here.

Weeks ago it snowed eight inches, a lot for us. The schools in my county — and throughout the region — closed.

But in Washington, DC, the schools stayed open. And controversy ensued.

Was opening the schools unsafe? Was it a waste of money, since only a small percentage of students and teachers showed up? Or was a school day too valuable to lose?

For me, that’s all beside the point. I think a day having fun in the snow is more valuable than a yet another day in class.

This came to mind again when I listened to President Obama’s recent speech about public education. Obama wants our kids to attend school more days and longer hours. Apparently, children in South Korea go to school more and, apparently, score better on tests.

Not only am I skeptical about such comparisons, and those tests, I’m totally uninterested in educating my kids to best the Russians or the Germans or the Japanese or anybody else.

*To me, education is all about encouraging my kids to love learning, and then facilitating their very personal pursuit of their own dreams. It’s not an international competition demanding ever-more hours of drudgery.

So, let it snow. (emphasis added)

Here it is:

“To me, education is all about encouraging my kids to love learning, and then facilitating their very personal pursuit of their own dreams. It’s not an international competition demanding ever-more hours of drudgery.”

I would add to this, one thing: my facilitating the learning of my child must be accompanied, first and foremost, through the leading of the Spirit of God. Apart from Him, I can do nothing!

If parents don’t want their children to become a mere cog in the capitalist machinery, then, perhaps, homeschooling is the way to raise up a child!

"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made"

While millions of people are out of work and losing their homes and war rages on, Obama is making sure that the Godless, self-absorbed feminist left gets what they want and at the expense of unborn children’s lives.

There are, according to the following Pew Forum article, some who are willing or led to take Obama to task on this issue.

Abortion Foes Recall Lincoln’s Slavery Stand

by Michelle Boorstein, Jenna Johnson and William Wan

The Washington Post

The inauguration of a president who supports abortion rights fired up the annual March for Life yesterday, with activists warning of new, more liberal legislation and urging President Obama to view abortion as a civil-rights issue akin to slavery.

Signs read: “Yes we can — eliminate abortion.” One speaker took the microphone and called for anti-abortion “community organizers,” a job the president held in Chicago. Another taunted Obama with references to one of his heroes.

Looking east at the thousands of marchers gathered from Fourth to Seventh streets on the Mall, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said Obama needed to be reminded “that the reason we built that monument to president Abraham Lincoln is because he saw the humanity in a slave that the Supreme Court said was not human.” Nothing could make Obama less like Lincoln than “forgetting that the unborn are also little children of God,” he added.

Police provided no estimate for the size of the crowd gathered on the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade. But anti-abortion leaders said they sensed a new intensity because of Obama and the new, more heavily Democratic Congress.

As King David sang, once again, thousands of years ago,

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well…
(Psalm 139: 13-14)

I can add nothing to this, because the truth should be evident, to everyone, in David’s words!

via Religion News: Abortion Foes Recall Lincoln’s Slavery Stand.