GUNS AND RELIGION

Many people remember the comment Barack Obama made about people clinging to their guns and religion.  Might not be a bad idea, given all the violence in the world in the name of religion IF he were speaking to the Islamic world.  A world where violence and religion are intertwined to about the same extent as Mosque and State.  A world that is intolerant of Christians, wanting to behead them, hang them, or failing that, marginalize them and persecute them mercilessly.   Despite the deaths of two American soldiers over the burning of two worthless Quran's used for surreptitious purposes, Obama is silent.  Makes one wonder.  

Doesn't make ME wonder.  Obama's comment was aimed at CHRISTIANS who believe that they have a right to protect themselves and their way of life.  Didn't even Jesus say that the house could not be plundered if the strongman were prepared?  Worldly people want weak Christians who will roll over in front of them.  Unfortunately, many Christians have done just that,  We are not talking about metal bullets here, but most Christians have abandoned Hollywood, the educational system, the popular music industry, and even politics, leaving all theses firmly in the hands of godless folks who want all Christians to be totally passive and let them remake society according to pattern of the Prince of the Power of the Air (the devil Satan for those of you not familiar with Christianese).

There is a war in the United States against Christianity that starts with the youngest children. Kids in movies say the wickedest things and witness the vilest behavior. Teachers try to undermine faith in God and Bible from the earliest ages.  Some Constitutionally illiterate school administrators even try to keep kids from praying before they eat!  Die-hard people with anti-Christ spirits such as Obama and his many minions detest people who deeply have faith in God and believe the Bible because they are his worst enemies - they know that abortion is wrong in their Spirit because GOD has written it on their heart.  The same with homosexuality. The same with the fact that a man who WON'T work shouldn't eat. The same with the fact that God is not behind any person with a dictatorial bent. Or behind living together or sex outside of marriage.

The odd part is, many professing CHRISTIANS support this war!  They speak against their own brethren who hold to the word of God and to God's laws and life principles!. A pastor who went to Palmer seminary said the hardest time of his week was when he was in class because half his professors did not believe in or trust the Word of God.  He transferred to Biblical Theological Seminary.  Unfortunately, Palmer is NOT the exception - it is the rule.   The vast majority of seminaries are apostate.  The vast majority of preachers refuse to preach the unvarnished word of God.  Ken Ham wrote a book "Going, Going, Gone..." about why young people left the church.  It doesn't start in college - it starts in middle school!  And kids who go to Sunday School are MORE LIKELY to reject Christ.  Huh?  Duh!  They are largely taught 'Bible Stories" much like the tales of Santa Claus.  They are not taught the BIble as a history book, science book, archaeological book, psychology book, lovers' manual, or the guidebook to initiate and maintain an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.  They have a zero-calorie faith with no spiritual muscles or intellectual firepower like the giants of the faith who came before us. Men who were overpowering orators of unquestioned logic and argument, persuading people of the truth through the Word of God through an anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Sunday Schoolers are not often taught WHY the Bible is true or how to defend it and are helpless against those in society dedicated to destroying their faith, those whom God will put millstones around their necks because they caused the little ones to stumble.  The doubts they started to have in middle school often increase as the temptations of high school begin to overwhelm them and turn innocent faces into those of vacant sinners.  College without parents around is then the laboratory to practice sin without restraint.  Christians are killing their own either accidentally or on purpose, and the results are predictable!

I have found that those who support the current anti-God currents in America do NOT believe the Bible as written.  They dismiss the importance of a six day creation which CHRIST said happened.  They do not believe in a physical heaven or hell despite a plethora of scripture that it would do violence to if interpreted otherwise.  They believe like much of the fallen world except that they say they believe that Jesus is God and that he is their Savior.  If we truly know God, we certainly should know what is important to him and reject following anyone of any party or church who denies essential truth or who lives according to the principles and faith of the world rather than that of God.

I pray every day for the church to find its way.  I pray for God to raise up those who are faithful and put down those who are not.  I pray for the Islamic world and all other false religions to implode and lose all influence because all faiths other than Biblical Christianity have their origin with demons.  Islam and Mormonism were indeed founded through angelic intervention - after all 1/3 of angels are demons!  Demons are active in many Christian-sounding cults and sects as well.  ANY FAITH that denies the essentials is demonic in nature - the infallibility of the Bible; the eternal deity and personhood of God the Father, of his only begotten son Jesus Christ , and of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sinless life, his vicarious death, his physical resurrection to a literal heaven, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the physical return of Jesus Christ to take his own to live with him forever and to damn to a physical hell those who have rejected him.

We need to cling not only to our religion, but to the weapons of our warfare which are not carnal, but mighty in the Holy Spirit,  Our weapons are more dangerous than guns, because our battle cannot be won with guns.  The war has been won by Christ and our calling is to stand firm against the onslaught of godlessness in all forms, and to join the war in the heavenlies against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We must be awake to all those who exalt themselves above God, who have messianic complexes, who teach and practices the doctrines of demons.  If we are asleep, we WILL be overcome and come to a tragic conclusion.   Have faith in God and live in such a consistent way so as to please him in all respects.

JEREMY LIN and RICK SANTORUM

You have to be living under a rock not to know about Jeremy Lin.  The young man whose parents emigrated from Taiwan in the 1970's.  The young basketball player from Palo Alto, California who was instrumental in his teams state high school championship.  The Man unrecruited by any college (racial prejudice, anyone?) who went to Harvard and has an MBA with a major in economics - who incidentally performed last second heroics in defeating William and Mary,

Lin bounced around the NBA with a couple of teams before the New York Knicks, with both Carmelo and Amare out, picked him up off the waiver wire to warm the bench.  They subbed him and he did well, so he has now started five games, scored at least twenty in ALL of them, and helped the Knicks, who had a woeful losing record, win all five.   He put up 38 against Kobe Bryant.  The first Taiwanese NBA player, he did what Alan Iverson, Shaquille O"Neal, and Michael Jordan could not do - put up 109 points in his first four games as an NBA starter.

Lin looks up to Tim Tebow and wants to help those in need and be a pastor after his playing days are over. He committed his heart to Jesus Christ in high school when he could, as he says, finally "get his mind around it".

You also have to be living under a rock not to notice that Rick Santorum has rocketed to the head to the GOP field in the Rasmussen polls.  Rick's campaign headquarters is a post office box.  He embarrassed Romney in Minnesota and Missouri, and had a respectable 5 point margin in yuppified Colorado (not the rugged but very progressive place it was when I lived there in the 1950's).  Mitt has millions.  Mitt has a staff that is huge and well-funded.   Mitt buried Newt in Florida by putting out 65 ads for every one of Newt's. Romney has been negative and his checkered past on the issues has a whole lot of people with a moral compass (including this writer) much less than impressed.

Rick has not personally attacked anyone in his campaign.  He is an attack dog on the issues, where the debate should stay.  He stands for life, for morality, for freedom. It goes to show you how starved people are for a push back to the dictatorial policies of Barack Obama - policies which are killing our economy and robbing our freedoms.  Policies which make our allies doubt us and make our enemies know that America is now a sitting duck with a spineless man in the White House who does not think America is worth fighting for - a man who appointed a LaRaza radical of all things - talk about a Wolf guarding the henhouse!

When Newt enunciated similar emotions in South Carolina, he soared to victory.  They he went off the reservation.  It is not about personality, or about someone's past.  It is about who will be a stalwart leader who can bring people together and lead without compromising with evil.  Rick said flat out he is here to serve the poor as well as the better off.  The working man as well as the executive.  Few feel Romney cares two cents about the poor wrestling with a safety net full of holes or the working man losing his home because of tragically flawed and absurd economic policies stemming from the 2006 Congressional elections. Massive deficit spending and unrealistic housing policies were the beginning of our deep travail.  God is now putting excitement in the fact that with someone who knows evil when he sees it in charge, our nation may yet be able to survive a while longer.

The lessons from the meteoric rise of these two fine men is that it is GOD who lifts up, and it is GOD who puts down.  God can take you and make you a person of influence on your job, in your neighborhood, in your church, in your sphere. It is also God who take the proud, the arrogant, and the divisive and put them down just as he did Nebuchadnezzar.  It is not to the mighty, but to those who honor God and the things that please God.  After all, do we believe David and Goliath or don't we?  Pray earnestly not only for Jeremy and Rick, but for each of us so that we will not live in the doldrums but come to the full potential of God's design for our lives!

IS IT MR. WRONGney?

The political season is in full swing, and all the dirt is flying fast and furious like a Kansas sandstorm.   Mr. Romney has been spending money like there is no tomorrow, with 65 ads in Florida for every one of Newt's.  It took all that to win.  People really do respond to sensory overload more than reason or analysis of a person's past.  With the Dems set to spend a BILLION dollars this fall, I fear this is only the beginning of nasty and largely dishonest advertising.

One wonders whether Mr. Romney, who actually shares at least half of Newt's positions, will be half as fanatic against Obama in the fall.  He seems to respect Obama a lot more than he does Newt.  In fact he seems to respect Democrats a whole lot.  He agreed with Teddy Kennedty more often than not when debating him in the Senatorial race in Massachusetts a few years ago (funny that an ex-governor losing a Senate race is a non-issue, but Rick Santorum's loss to Casey in another blue state is considered a disqualifier).

Rick won a REALLY close one, Mitt won New Hampshire where he has a home, and Florida, and Newt won South Carolina.  And it is supposed to be over?  Excuse me!   It is FAR from over in my mind. 

Romney does not seem to have the chuzpah to go toe to toe to Obama.  He certainly will have a hard time with Romneycare, which was a concept that was at the base of Obamacare with even some of the SAME consultants involved.  He will have a hard time identifying with the working man, since he simply does not have street cred.  Most minorities will likely view him as another Mormon, which has a reacist past, though now is proactive in the minority communities.  I can see Romney in South Philly asking for Swiss cheese on a cheesesteak, just like the aloof John Kerry. And now the gaffe about not caring about the very poor?  No safety net is a solution to their issues.  Despite his generous charity contributions, it seems Mitt simply is removed from the realities of the very poor.

Those who consider themselves VERY conservative were the only demographic to go for Newt.  Santorum was a distant third and Paul simply a spoiler (did you watch Paul's speech?  Very painful. I was hollering at the TV.   He is incredibly ignorant - like the Doctor in those ads with a jackhammer - he should stick to medicine).   Paul is one guy I would NEVER vote for unless he had a "Damascus Road experience".  I would write myself in.

I am sick and tired of people giving lip service to what I believe in, but who have no real moral imperative in their spirit to press for these issues or do something substantative about them.  I really have no confidence that Mitt will fight for moral issues - he seems to change with the wind.  I think he will fight for a better economy, but if our troubles are indeed a judgment from God for our gross immorality, his experience is not the solution.  Actually, he has run for office a lot, and his business experience has resulted in heartbreak for many with a lot of profit for him.  It is simply not the business model we need right now.  Better than Obama? Of course.  Good enough?  No.

I am an optimist and an idealist, but let me express what I am looking for in a candidate - one of the ones running now could change, but perhaps God has someone in the wings who would truly meet these deep desires.

1) A true patriot - not "my country right or wrong", but someone who realizes they are president of the USA, not the world.  A person who honors our commitments to our allies - Israel, Weatern and Eastern Europe, South Korean, the Phillippines, etc. with a move to ADD allies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. China has the sense to do this.  Can we do less with so much more to offer in terms of freedom?

2) A person willing to defend the weak and the attacked around the world with a strong moral imperative and no involvement for economic gain.

3) A person who seeks for a fair and level playing field for business.  Simpler and fairer tax rates and a move to eliminate favored treatment or interference in business where there is no compelling reason.

4) A person who will NOT use baseline budgeting, but start from ZERO.  All wasteful programs must be adandoned, with no earmarks permitted.  Any expense must have a revenue stream attached to it.  All budgets must be balanced except in time of declared war or extreme weather emergency such as Katrina.

5) A tax policy that makes ALL pay SOME tax at a rate appropriate to their income, but eliminates marriage penalties, rewards for unproductive uses of money, etc.  Everyone needs to be part of the picture and we need to eliminate the me-them mentality. People who can pay, but who won't, such as Warren Buffet with one BILLION owed should be imprisoned, not made campaign props.

6) An education policy that sets national goals but local implementation, with priorities given to schools that will innovate and teach what is needed for success in life, Federal prosecution of Universities such as Vanderbilt that are hostile to relgion, An end to closed-loop research grants that exclude alternative view of origins, climate issues, etc. and an encouragement to challenge consensus assumptions in a search for truth. A revitalization of the space program, perhaps with private money with a goal such as that set by JFK to land a man on the moon within a decade.

7) An end to a culture of selfishness. Encouragement from the top from all to give as they are able to church, charity, and the poor and to actually do those things in the White House.  To invite the poor and disenfrranchised to State Dinners to honor them without regard to party, ecnomic or social status, or ethnicity.

8) A person who uses the "bully pulpit" to encourage personal morality, to be without any hint of impurity, to put every restriction on abortion and homosexuality that is legally possible, and to appoint judges at EVERY level to bring about change in those areas.

9) A person who will present a positive vision for the future and limit crticism of Obama to the real issues - a falsified birth certrificate that was theprogenitor of a string of unconstitutional actions; a divider instead of a unitor, Marxist in tone, pagan in values.

10) A person who will not be blind to the power of the media as G.W. Bush  seemed to be - using public appearances to correct false reporting and slants and standing tirelessly for the truth.

11) A person who will go to all ethnic groups and union workers as well as rural audiences.  A person who will be positive about the melting pot but insist on shared values, increased communication with a common language, and a new sense of unity and destiny.

12) And yes, a person who is not hostile to Christianity, or one who denies that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God (both Mitt and Obama), but one who has an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, who is unashamed about it, who will pray in the White House and intercede for our nation and other nations, and who will encourage the people to live on a high moral plane.

What do YOU think?  Is he Mr. WRONGney?   Or do we have to settle once again and hold our nose in the voting booth?