PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

I was in a coffee house several months ago where the moderator made a comment that was born purely of racism. The group broke up, and the host venue went out of business. I didn't say much because God did so with HIS actions. However, something happened yesterday, and I want to show a linkage here.

My wife's cousin died of cancer a week ago Sunday. He was a Vietnam Vet who was a point man who risked his life many times but escaped unharmed. She was very fond of him because he saved her life when she ran into trouble in the ocean when a child. The funeral is tomorrow, as a specialty Army casket had to be prepared. I went to a local flower shop to see about ordering floral baskets to be sent from our family and from my brother-in-law's family. I received the prices, saw the pictures, and asked how far they delivered. They said - "everywhere". I said, "In Philadelphia, near Penn?" (the University of Pennsylvania for those of you from other parts of the country). She said "No problem". Just let her know by this morning and they would be in the church by 8 am tomorrow. I told her I wanted my wife to pick the colors. So my wife went to the shop later the same day and talked to the same person. She showed her no book and was distinctly less interested than she had been with me. She said they didn't deliver to that area (though we hadn't discussed that, my wife happened to use identical terminology the same location "near Penn"). Pure racism (my wife is Black but I am not). Anyone can have a policy of how far they will go to deliver - but we were given two opposite policies on THE SAME DAY. In 2011. Are you surprised? I'm not. It happens to a lot of people more frequently than any would care to admit. The mantra of many on the right is to focus on Black racism - "We've moved on, why can't they?"

Well, my wife ordered flowers from Center City, and if I believe it will do any good, I will send a copy of this post to that local flower shop. I'm sure they will say they wait on Black customers - they probably do. However, they treated my wife differently from how they treated me. That is racism.

Now to that coffeehouse. It had a very liberal slant. The comment made was that no one should criticize Obama for ANYTHING because he was Black and needed their support. (We will ignore for the moment that Obama is actually 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arab, and only 6.25% African Negro - unlike many of bi-racial or tri-racial heritage, Tiger Woods coming to mind, Obama identifies as Black and people have bought that - "if you say you are Jew, you are one" thinking. Based upon his performance, if I were Black, I would have been slower to take ownership or at least have relinquished it - he really has performed like a wacky left wing white guy, not like a Black leader who makes life better for all and who regards the Lord as integral with the struggle.  After all, Abraham Lincoln was half-black, so we already have had an exemplary "Black" president - some would say our GREATEST president, and we had four other Presidents with mixed heritage according to Black historians. What you don't know CAN hurt you! Since all people are the same COLOR, and it is difference in merely in shade, all racial animus is really irrational anyway.)

Many people of all colors had rapidly learned that "Hope and Change" had resulted in almost every decision being anti-Christian, anti-American, and anti-Israel (and Poland, and Czechoslovakia and...). While many were ill-informed on who was primarily responsible for the terrible economy (refer to my prior post "DEBT") others had gotten the word. It has gotten worse since then - now fully 55% of Black males do NOT have full time employment. That is staggering. When you consider that the U-3 unemployment figure of over 9% and the U-6 unemployment figure of about 18% do NOT include the self-employed and the army of 1099 people - realtors, insurance agents, many construction workers, and others, the number is about 25% unemployed or underemployed. The rate for Black men is over DOUBLE! If you believe the statistics, the wealth of many in the Black middle class was centered in real estate, and we all know what happened to home prices. Self-interest alone should make Blacks more than anyone cry out for drastic change from this counterfeit "Hope and Change".  However, racism will cause people to place more loyalty in skin color than in common sense. Just like that flower shop willing to lose money to disrespect someone because of the color of their skin.

DEBT

I marvel at the placid nature of most Republicans! George Bush NEVER defended himself. Like many in the gentry, they believed that the people could tell truth from error. Many other Republicans have taken the same approach, and the lies keep coming and more and more people think they must be true. Now the media will not expose the lies - they are partners in them! Every opportunity must be taken to debunk the mythology! In the video, "How Obama Got Elected", about 75% to 80% of the people polled who voted for Obama had basic facts wrong - NOT political or arguable issues - FACTS! They thought Palin made the boners Biden or Obama made, they thought the GOP controlled Congress up until the 2008 election, etc., etc. If enough of these folks knew the truth, perhaps the election would have gone differently.

Yesterday on Sean Hannity's radio show, someone kept hammering that Bush increased the debt 6 trillion dollars, so why blame Obama for his spending? Sean really did not address this in a good way. FACTS: The national debt actually increased 6.2 trillion dollars while Prez Bush was in office, BUT, in the first six years with a GOP Congress, it increased 2.9 trillion, or fewer than 500 billion per year. AND it was decreasing!  That is too high a figure and the decrease wasn't fast enough (though much faster than is now being proposed) so the "bums" got kicked out in the 2006 election. However, when Nancy Pelosi grabbed the reins, they increased the deficit for 3.4 trillion in only TWO years! 3 1/2 times the deficit! A much larger deficit in TWO years than the previous SIX and it continued under Obama. How many people know this? These are not political numbers, they are actual published FACTS!

Where criticism of Bush is merited is the following:

1) He should have vetoed EVERY spending bill from Pelosi and gone directly to the American people and fought for it instead of figuring, "well, Elections Have Consequences". They DO, but Democrats fight every minute they are out of power. Politics is a fight, and if you don't want to fight, don't get involved!  In fairness to Bush, the Senate used continuing resolutions to avoid having a budget pass for 2009.  They STILL have not passed a budget.  The new House passed one, but the Senate wants to continue the overspending.

2) Bush should have defended himself - his silence was a major political gaffe. He STILL is quiet though Bill Clinton is not shy about saying what he thinks.

3( Bush proclaimed Islam a "religion of peace", flying in the face of History and what EVERY Christian in a Muslim country knows. His spiritual weakness paved the way for even more embraces of Islam by the current President.

Debt beyond the ability to repay is WRONG. It MUST be gotten under control. When circumstances make life more difficult, restructuring is needed. We need to press, press, press, and not leave it to others who have the ruination of our nation as their goal.

SHIFTING SAND

For far too long, Christians have been pushed farther and farther back from the demarcation line between good and evil. We still look at people hoping Christ will make a radical transformation, but at the same time seem immune to the fact we are stepping backwards in accordance with the agenda of Satan.

The secular humanists and radical activists know the effectiveness of this strategy. They work 24/7 moving that line in their favor and against the truth of God. When it came to mainstreaming homosexuality, they did it incrementally. They started by including homosexual humor on TV - much of it demogatory, but intended to getting us to include the concept in our lexicon of ideas. Then they increased acceptance little by little. I was sitting with my wife the other day, and there was nothing on, so I put on THE NEWLYWED GAME for a minute. They were asking a man about his husband! It was pathetic! My wife could not believe it, but was soon convinced. CLICK. Step by step they have moved the line to such as extent that in a Comcast news article yesterday, they said those who believed homosexuality was an abomination were 'white supremacists'! The case was a boy dressed like a provocative girl in heels in high school who aggressively went after other boys. He ended up executed by a classmate. No one excuses violence, of course, but in the world system, the clash of cultures inevitably leads to it to some degree or other. After all, it was just two days ago that we saw fireworks celebrating a violent revolution against the British. They had done some nasty things to us Americans, but it all pales next to the moves to create an upside-down America where all wrong is right and all right is wrong. I am not forming a militia, but as an evangelist I am like Paul Revere warning that the Satanists are coming! All those who oppose the gospel that Jesus Christ is Lord, the only true God, and author of all things good ARE children of the devil wheter they be Muslim, Atheist, Buddhist, Agnostic, Bahai, WHATEVER. It is not enlightenment of any kind - it is a move of GREAT DARKNESS, and it must be opposed with every fiber of our being. Jesus said that the Father put everything in his, and only Christ can reveal the Father to ANYONE. NO ONE can know the Father unless he comes through Jesus Christ.

It is to the point where if you disagree with these folks you are painted with all the hatred they can muster. Of course I put up one of my trademark posts on Comcast, but I didn't see even ONE other. Maybe by now... The terms of the debate are being changed daily and Christians are acquiesing.

We need to push back all these lines the OTHER way - the lines on abortion, homosexuality, decency in the media, integrity of politicians. Back in the early seventies before Roe v. Wade, abortion was a hot debate topic. Christians, by and large, insisted that ALL abortion be illegal in EVERY situation. That is the position of Michell Bachmann, and there are real reasons to hold that position. However, at the time 90% of the nation did not hold to that. They believed there should be some exceptions, such as for rape and incest and the life (and in some cases the health) of the mother. Christian pundits made it an all or nothing and they lost the debate. They allowed others to falsely claim that these exceptions were in fact the rule, though at the time they were perhaps 3% of abortions or fewer. The all-or-nothing approach has resulted in millions of deaths of preborn babies. While most Americans still disapprove of abortion on demand, Christians have failed to make a sufficient national political case, move that line, and control the debate.

In terms of homosexuality, pastors and politicans have back-peddled to where they refuse to call it the abomination God does. They emphasize BEHAVIOR instead of ORIENTATION, even though God says the EFFEMINITE cannot enter the Kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9-10). It is rare to hear the truth, and those that venture to say it are often those with other issues, such as hate and vengeance. We are not talking about STONING people here - w3e are talking about loving people but giving NO ROOM to the devil. We are talking about REFUSING to vote for people who advocate athe practice and coddle practitioners with obtrusive laws to shut up truth-tellers. Did you know that if ALL Christians voted against people supporting the homosexual agenda we would not have a Dem Senate and a President HOSTILE to Biblical Christianity? Unfortunately, many still vote based upon emotion and catch phrases instead of obvious truth and policy positions that come from their own mouths.

The problem it that the church is lily-livered when it comes to standing for truth. My radiobroker told me 90% of EVANGELICAL churches did not want to be have PUBLIC gospel ministries proclaiming the need for salvation to save people from hell. About 90% of Christian schools accept the philosophy of evolution that has exacerbated racism, economic Darwinism, and reduced confidence in the Word of God. If you don't believe the Presamble and the foundation, why would you believe the rest? And so they compromise, compromise, compromise. No wonder many Christian college professors now OPENLY espouse universalism.

So I exhort you today to REFUSE to let others frame the debate. Do not support compromise. Do not patronize those who do. Jesus warned us that in the last days, MANY would come showing healings, deliverances, etc., but we didn't know them and condemned them to hell. This is serious business. MANY are being misled. MANY are prophesying lies and error. MANY are preaching a watered-down gospel with no threshold of salvation that includes Godly sorrow, repentance, and a surrending of the authority to run our life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact is that preaching that Gospel is still powerful, and we must do it faithfully. As we are in the public square, we must all stand for what God stands for, and support those who do likewise, and work for the defeat of those who do not.