The Ultimate Reason Why We Need Guns

The Ultimate Reason Why We Need Guns

Mike Huckabee Answers Where God Has Gone

Mike Huckabee's thoughts on God in relation to the Connecticut shooting.  View at Fox News here.

Connecticut School Shooting - Divergent Worldviews

Immediately, the clamoring over gun rights began. The day wasn't even finished and the comments on the news stories were alternately hand-wringing over too many guns or vociferously defending gun rights at any cost.

My first thought, as a parent, is for the parents of those children. Many in the alternative media are decrying Obama's tears as manipulation. I see the tears of a father. I don't care about politics at a time like this. The man seems to care on at least this most basic level and I give him credit for that. But why are we looking to President Obama?

This will stir the gun debate anew; but, the issue is deeper than the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Many people believe that guns should be banned, that the 2nd Amendment is an anachronism. Others believe that gun ownership should remain free and legal. I happen to fall in the second camp. And the reason is deeper than simply a distrust of government.

I see two worldviews. One group of people firmly believe in the divine right of kings. We thought we had rid ourselves of this notion, but we haven't. They believe those born to better families, to better classes have better tools with which to lead and govern a people impoverished of wisdom. They believe that certain exceptional people have wisdom that the rest of us do not. I could see it on the President's face today as he spoke. He was determined to take action regardless of the political consequences. What action would he like to take? I believe he wants to pass more restrictive gun laws. His answer, their answer, is that government has the answers and government is the only thing that makes people's lives better, safer.

There is another group of people who firmly believe in the rights of the individual. They don't believe in the collective, except in cases where it is necessary. Their first answer doesn't come from government, but from themselves. From their own experience. From their God. From the standpoint that the individual reigns supreme. But there is a disconnect.

An individual does not truly reign supreme. Either he or his religion bridles his passions or else the community or government must do that for him. We can have self-rule but only for the self-disciplined. As John Adams famously stated:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

There must be restraint. I would rather those restraints come from me rather than my government. And so now we see the true underlying cause of the school shootings: lack of discipline and accountability.

Like it or not, we are accountable to each other, as I've said in this blog before. Rather than turn to government for the answers, this shooter's family should have taken the responsibility to discipline and bring to heel his passions and emotions long before today. Strong leadership in the family and in the community is what is needed, not more laws. Just as friends and family failed Ted Haggard and Jerry Sandusky, they also failed Matthew Murray and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. When will we finally understand that with freedom comes responsibility? Ironically, Big Sis's program of "See something, say something" isn't too far off the mark. These people's friends had a responsibility to them. And to us.

So now we must choose. Which worldview will it be? The divine right of kings and governments to dispense laws on our behalf? Or will it be true freedom and responsibility to one another? We can no longer have it both ways.

Chris Hedges exemplifies the class system in America...in a Good Way

I need to get my thoughts out here while they are fresh, but then I need to get back to work. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury to think through the issues as well as a Chris Hedges or other prominent writers. I am enmeshed in the corporate system through work, debt, and education. I serve as a technocrat project manager and that is the point of this post.

I read a website run by Gary North. He is not perfect. There are more than a few intellectual and theological areas where I disagree with his conclusions. Nevertheless, his scholarship has opened doors to me that I would otherwise have remained ignorant of. He recently posted a 3 hour C-SPAN2 video interview of author Chris Hedges. And here is the fascinating part. Just a few days earlier this week, I was looking for the real-life protagonist from The Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner. Not remembering his name, I accidentally came across Chris Hedges. I found some old essays of his that I had read in years past. I was fascinated that although I'm not as liberal in my politics as he, we shared a lot of the same views of the Corporate State.

Here is the video: Chris Hedges on C-SPAN2

So, imagine my surprise when Dr. North published a link to the Chris Hedges interview on his website today. Serendipitous.

Listening to the interview, I was introduced to two more authors that I had never encountered. Karl Popper and Sheldon Wolin. Through the brilliance of Amazon, I was able to find their books within seconds and added them to my shopping cart. But what struck me is that without the introduction to Gary North, without the unfettered access to the Internet, I would never have been able to expand my knowledge to these new authors.

Why is Chris Hedges so well-read? What connections or better academic upbringing allowed him to go to Harvard while the best I could do was attend the U.S. Air Force Academy? I believe it is the class system we find ourselves in. Americans like to believe we live in an egalitarian system of pure meritocracy. I argue that we don't. Sure, some will attain to the higher reaches of society through moxie and guile, but not without at least one thread that connects someone from the upper class to that promising individual of the lower class.

In my own life, I will never forget sitting next a student from Colorado College on a plane back home for break. I was a student at the Air Force Academy at the time. We struck up a conversation. Students at the Academy generally regarded those at Colorado College with disdain. We thought they had little to offer humanity other than system-challenging ideas. Supporting the status quo was my highest ideal at the time. I was taught that and nothing else. When we started discussing politics, I found myself completely disarmed and unable to mount even a feeble defense of why I supported the system. At the time, I was intellectually unprepared to counter even the most specious of Marxist arguments. Instead, I was dumb-founded. I was wondering how he could come by the knowledge he had while I had never even heard of the authors he was referencing.

In the years since, the blinders have slowly come off. I've recounted that story already in this blog. I understand now that I was being trained according to my class and station. I showed enough promise to enter the Management class. I was under no circumstances to even be introduced to the ruling class of government, artists, and thought leaders. I was being taught to follow orders, not question them. My peer at Colorado College was obviously learning something very different. He may not have been groomed to enter the Ruling class, but he was certainly being equipped to challenge it whereas I was being equipped to defend it. And I didn't even know why.

I never had a mentor come to me and put his arm around me when I was young. I was never introduced to some of the greater works of philosophy or economics or literature because few in my family had been introduced to them in their lives. How could they teach me what they didn't know themselves?

I was given a spiritual heritage for which I am grateful. Beyond that, I was left to my own path with little direction. Why? Because my family was in a different class than a Mitt Romney or a Chris Hedges or a Mark Zuckerberg or a Bill Gates. (As a telling statistic, ask yourself who among your friends has a child named Mitt or Newt or Tip? Those are Elitist names for the ruling class. I'll forgive "Lew" because of the work he has accomplished for the common man.) And I didn't show the intellectual promise of a Sergey Brin or a Larry Page. Therefore, I didn't go to Stanford. I must have shown some sort of promise because I managed to snag that scholarship from the U.S. government. And that's good. I was able to get my "education" knocked out. But I know now that it was more indoctrination than education. That's ok. It's better than the alternative, which was nothing.

What is my answer? Education is the answer, but not within the current system. The current system sorts people by class based on familial birth. Those in the north east from "establishment" families are going to the Ivy League, period. It doesn't matter that there are hundreds of thousands of intellectually brighter students out there. The meritocracy is limited. Instead, I argue that with the advent of the Internet, we now have the tools to effect a real education of many millions of people. I've listed many of the sites to begin with in my blog roll on the right hand side of this page. Sites like Lewrockwell.com, Mises.org, and garynorth.com have opened my eyes in ways I never would have imagined 10 years ago.

Education will eventually lead to the withdrawal of consent to our current paradigms. When enough people truly withdraw their consent, we will have change. It worked for Gandhi. It worked for the Civil Rights movement. It will work eventually here in America and in other western nations.

In the meantime, we all need to free ourselves from the corporate serfdom in which we now find ourselves fully awake. Not everyone is awake to the Matrix in which we live. I know that it doesn't even occur to my co-workers to question their support of the products our companies produce. They are not trained nor expected to make moral decisions in their work. Neither was I.

The best way for us to find freedom is in financial independence. When people are financially independent, they are more able to speak their minds. When enough people can actually speak and then act according to their free conscience, a flood of change will finally be unleashed.

A True Believer, Not a "System" Believer

I'm working my way through an excellent book by Jeff Schmidt, Disciplined Minds - A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System that Shapes their Lives.  It's basic premise is the status quo is kept in place not only by corporations, but by the systems of entry into the upper levels of those corporations, be it in the sciences, technology, or traditional business tracks.  The educational system that produces professionals for this system is complicit by its very structure.  By the way, John Taylor Gatto said as much too in his, The Underground History of American Education.  I'll let you read the book to see more, but it brought out some thoughts in me I'd like to share.


The author left out a very important facet to his analysis.  He seems to deny the spiritual component behind the scenes.  You see, I've always been a True Believer which has kept me from being blinded by "The System."  Not that I'm endorsing the series, but there is a scene in the Left Behind novels where Nicolai Carpathia is telling a lie to a group of individuals at a high-level U.N. meeting.  Only, the protagonist is immune because his Spiritual side is preventing the lie from taking hold in him.  He's watching the horrifying scene play out as people are brainwashed like Manchurian Candidates.  When the session is over, the unprotected go forth boldly proclaiming the lie while the reader and the protagonist know the real truth.  

This is how I feel.  I've never really "bought in" to the total package.  I haven't striven for the Master' Degree.  I never longed to be in a Fraternity or part of the Tri-Lateral Commission.  I don't want a membership in the Council on Foreign Relations.  Perhaps those in the business world can sense this disloyalty, much like a dog "smells" fear.  It may be why I prefer contract work to full time employment.  

I don't believe that all of the individuals that make up "The System" are consciously trying to perpetuate the status quo because of some conscious nefarious decision they've made.  They really believe in what they're doing.  They really believe that "greed, for lack of a better word, is good...", (Gordon Gecko, Wall Street).  No, we have a more insidious system of enslavement in place now.


Instead of overt slavery, we all have become slaves to our passions, our entertainment, our baser selves.  As Neil Postman argued in his brilliant book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, we have fulfilled Huxley's, not Orwell's vision.  There is no need to ban books or burn them because people simply don't want to read.  The vast majority are uninformed.  They are stupefied into believing the lies presented to us by media, by education, and unfortunately sometimes, by the Christian Church.  


Which brings me back to Schmidt's book.  I have a deep desire to feel useful in my work.  I believe this is how God made all of us.  But the structures in place reserve meaningful work only for a privileged few.  By meaningful I mean that one takes part in the decision making process and share in the profits of those decisions.  Instead, we have a system where most in the division of labor are treated as cogs in the machine.  They are resources.  They are expendable.  They don't share in the decision making and they certainly don't share in the profits.  Those are reserved for the "professionals."  


My burning question is how to effect real change in the system in which I find myself?  Different factions have their own take on it.  The "world" of course doesn't want you to see that there even is a problem.  Just go watch the NFL and American Idol.  Enjoy the pittance of freedom it allows you to maintain and drown any remaining unhappiness in alcohol or a bevy of "doctor approved" psychotropic drugs brought to you by the wonderful pharmaceutical industry.  


The pragmatists state that being true to yourself and maintaining honor amidst the corruption is the highest ideal.  You find this in the military and in the service professions.  But serving with no hope of reward is tiresome.  There's more to this side, but that should be another post.


The church has 2 views.  On the one hand, the Bible instructs us to work at whatever we are doing with all of our heart.  The instruction is that if we simply work hard enough, God will reward us in the next life.  It goes on to say that our inheritance is from God.  And I believe that.  I do. 


The other Christian view is that of the "prosperity gospel."  If you just serve God now, you will reap rewards now and live like kings here on earth.  This I do NOT believe.  Jesus is the best example as to why that cannot be true.


So if I believe that our inheritance is from God, what is the problem?  The problem is how to reconcile serving a corrupt system while trying to maintain that God will reward me anyway.  It's not quite to the extreme where I feel like I'm dealing drugs and working at dealing "with all my heart."  But, it's close.  

I feel like my work serves the status quo and keeps people enslaved to a system with which I fundamentally disagree.


So the next question is, "How do I bring the Kingdom of God to bear upon the system?"  Do we rebel like Spartacus and Martin Luther?  Or do we work within the system like Martin Luther King, Jr.?  


I've tried very hard to keep putting on a smile at work.  I try to care about people in the midst of looking over their shoulder to perform my technocratic work as a Project Manager.  But my job  humiliates them:  Make them subservient to a process of getting work accomplished instead of creatively accomplishing the same work.  I feel bad about it.  But how to change?

How do I reconcile being a Christian in a corrupt system?  How do I pursue freedom and justice for myself and others in this system?  What does the Kingdom of God look like as applied to the inner bowels of process improvement which lead only to increased profits for C-levels and shareholders (scroll down to see the first chart), but not the workers?

I'm a True Believer in God, but I don't believe in this monetary system I serve.

If we were called to be salt and light, I'm sure that meant more than simply avoiding alcoholism and making sure you were in church every Sunday and tithing one tenth of your income faithfully.  Where is the revolution?  Is it only internal?  Is it only for the personal social issues?  What about changing the way people work and live and interact?  Where is the justice for the Foxconn workers who have suicide nets outside their buildings? 


For now, I am going to continue to try and "redeem" Project Management for the glory of God.  I don't know what that looks like, but it starts with caring about people more than profits.

Supreme Court Justice (sic)

We have been told for years that we should pragmatically accept whoever the Republican party trots out so that they can appoint "conservative" justices.  We see where this has landed us time and again.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/114582.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/114583.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/114580.html

We are not ruled by those in black robes.  At least we shouldn’t be.  And the recent decision by Chief Justice Roberts, a Republican nominee, to side with the left on Obamacare, invalidates this argument once and for all.  We’ve had a conservative (supposedly) majority for a long time now.  Tell me why Roe v. Wade hasn’t been turned around?  I could go on, but one thing is clear:  the people of this country are no longer in charge in any way shape or form.  And I don’t care if Romney is supposedly a conservative.  It was HIS health care plan that Obamacare was modeled after.  I’m not voting for the lesser of two cultists.  Romney is a Mormon.  Doesn’t that matter to anyone?  I’m going to write in Ron Paul.  I hope all of the Paul supporters do the same.  I want the Republican establishment that dogged Paul every step of the way to finally understand that it was their lack of support, or even respect, for Ron Paul threw the election to Obama.  I hope those neoconservative statists have to sulk about it for the next 4 years.  But no matter what, I’m going to vote my conscience.  Or I may not vote at all.  But I certainly have no respect for the spin masters in the Republican party who suppose that they can just continue to shove their silver spoons down our throats.  The young people of this country are going to eventually be the majority.  If we can survive without martial law being declared in the meantime, liberty will eventually come back to America.  But it won’t be because a RINO like Romney appointed some centrist judges. 

It will only be because the people finally broke out of their stupor and realized what was being done to them first though the public education system, then through the corporatist feudal system.  Americans will realize that the war on drugs was nothing but a farce to populate the corrupt private prison system.  Americans will finally realize that fluoride in the water was meant to be a neurological deterrent to dissent and a dumping ground for manufacturing waste.  Americans will finally realize that the corrupt health care system never cared about keeping people well, but keeping people sick so that the medical apparatus and pharmaceutical industry could continue to profit.

Finally, Americans are going to come back to their senses and realize that there can be no law without God’s law.  There can be no ethics without an ultimate arbitrator that sits outside of mankind.  They will realize their own inability to govern themselves without the voluntary disciplining influence of Christ. 

Until then, I am only one voice among millions who is choosing to vote his conscience instead of what is politically expedient.  True Godly character has to become the ethos once again.  We must replace this detestable pragmatism that has been enshrined in the last 5 to 10 decades.  We must become again one nation, spiritually homogenous, under God, under Christ, and declare as our forbearers did, “No King, but King Jesus!”  “No King, but King Jesus!!”*

*On April 18, 1775 John Adams and John Hancock were at the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke, a Lexington pastor and militia leader. That same night Paul Revere arrived to warn them of the approaching Redcoats. The next morning British Major Pitcairn shouted to an assembled regiment of Minutemen; "Disperse, ye villains, lay down your arms in the name of George the Sovereign King of England." The immediate response of Rev. Jonas Clarke or one of his company was:

"We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus."

In this crucial hour of our nation’s history it is past time that the true saints of God give total allegiance to the Kingship of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The crisis of the ages demands that we renew the historic battle-cry of our Christian Forefathers –

"WE HAVE NO KING BUT KING JESUS!"

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!"    Patrick Henry

Joe Paterno & Jerry Sandusky - Accountability Partners?

Reflecting on Joe Paterno’s firing, I’m hearing the oft-repeated phrase, “As long as I’m not hurting anybody, leave me alone.” We are told that what we do in private is our own concern. We are told by the secular community that their sin doesn’t affect anyone else. Now we see yet another example of how the sin of one individual causes the worst to come out in all those around him. Joe Paterno was fired Wednesday for his sin of omission, as was the president of the university, Graham Spanier. Certainly we can see that Jerry Sandusky’s sin has brought down a beloved coach and university president. We could say the same thing about the sins of the Enron directors. All of the stockholders of that company paid for the sins of those men who made decisions without regard for others.

In my mind, this is why the Bible tells us that whether we like it or not, we are accountable to one another. We have a responsibility to hold ourselves and others accountable. Where were the Christians in Jerry Sandusky’s life who could have spoken truth to him? Where were the honorable in Enron’s upper leadership who could have stopped things before they got out of control?

2 myths of our day need to finally be dispelled right now. The first is that we live in a moral vacuum. In this current culture’s rush to declare everything acceptable, we see that everything isn’t really acceptable; at least, not when acceptable means allegations of sodomy against young boys. NAMBLA (search the term, you'll be surprised what people try to do in the light of day) might beg to differ, but it’s pretty obvious that society still does not consider a boy under 12 able to decide on his relationship preferences. So we aren’t really as secular and egalitarian as we’d like to believe. We do not live in a moral vacuum. We live in the light of God’s laws written on our hearts and conscience. We can’t escape it. It is our job as Christians to gently and winsomely lead the way for those who don’t know God. We should be modeling not only right behavior, but right accountability and right community.

The second myth is that we can make it on our own. Our polarized society would like us to believe differently. We now have single serving soups because the over 50% of the population that is single can’t be bothered to have a meal with anyone. Or more truthfully, those with friends are failing to reach out to those with few or none. Jerry Sandusky needed a real friend many years ago. Now the adage from the Bible has proven true again: “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23) I do sympathize with him, but I’m sorrier for his victims. I’m sorry for all of the people that this one man’s sin has now affected. Jerry could not really make it alone, even though he had wealth and prestige. Neither can we.

Let this be an example to society at large that despite our protests, God says there is a better way to live. Let this be a lesson to the Christians: we are called to be salt and light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. I think everyone can agree that the actions of Jerry Sandusky if proven true, are perverse. Christians (myself included) need to stop worrying so much about the work they are doing, the leisure they may be missing, and the retirement for which they are planning. People are hurting all around us. God has not called all of us to specific Christian ministry because our mission fields are the workplace, the office, the home, the ball field, the community center, the skating rink. I guarantee you there is a Christian somewhere in Jerry Sandusky’s life who did not heed the call of the Spirit to say something years ago. I’m sad for all of us who let our brothers and sisters down in this way.

Now there will be justice in some form delivered by the hand of Man. But we will give an account to God someday as well. I pray we all learn the lesson that it is important to be vitally involved. If we had done a better job of that, perhaps there would be 8 human beings, children of God, who would not have to wear the moniker of “victim.”

How to handle Stress

Just a quick thought here about handling stress. God does not call us to be passive, but active in His kingdom. We are on the front lines, operating within the kingdom of this world. And by that activity, we are advancing the Kingdom of God so that the gates of Hell cannot stand against it: Matthew 16:18 "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." It means we are to go on the offensive, not defensive.

So, that said, when the pressures of the world press in, we are to meet them with the word of God, not cringe in a corner passively asking God to save us. He's already done that. We have been granted inheritance in the Kingdom of light according to Colossians 1:12 " giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light."

The Bible is replete with calls to action and we will overcome by the Word of God. In Isaiah 1:17 it says to "Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow." Isaiah 26:3 also says that "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."

Nahum 1:7 tells us that "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him." With that encouragement we come to Philippians 4:4-9 which tells us how to ACTIVELY have peace:

"4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you."

I hope and pray that this will be an encouragement to you as it has to me. We CAN overcome the world because Jesus has overcome the world and it's systems of Machiavellian pragmatism. John 16:33 says "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Ours is an active faith. We walk by faith and not by sight; but, we do walk. Faith is not passive. Jesus is not passive. God's kingdom is not passive, but advancing. It is advancing in us as we advance in God's power. Luke 17:21 says "...For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

AVATAR – It Has Something To Say About Your Politics And Your Spirituality

Reading the various reviews, comments, and technical critiques of James Cameron’s genre defining blockbuster, AVATAR, I’m reminded that the best any of us can do when coming to a work of art is to see how it confirms or challenges our own built in preconceptions and assumptions. Such was my experience when I saw AVATAR twice this past weekend. I saw it first in 3D, then took my wife the following evening to watch it in 2D.

I can tell you that the 3D experience is real, visceral, and emotion-laden. Comparing it to my 2D experience the following night, I felt more engaged and part of the story while watching in 3D. This will change the way we view movies. As others have more eloquently stated, this is simply the most visually stunning movie I’ve ever seen. While the technology is astounding, in other hands the movie would have faltered. I cringed at the B-movie trailer for “Piranha 3D!” I shudder to think what Michael Bay would do with this technology. I agree with other movie critics: This is our generation’s “The Jazz Singer.” Go see it if for no other reason than to experience it as it is now, not later when you’re trying to fill your bucket list before you die.

Beyond the technology lies what some have called a simplistic story. It needed to be simple so that as many people as possible would feel the full impact of the message. Judging by all the Establishment criticism, even the Vatican weighed in, they felt it. I call it the classic hero meta-narrative. People will see in this movie what they want to see. Some will see a racist screed. Others see “Liberal” propaganda. Some will interpret an anti-Christian bias and plead with their fellow Christians not to see such trash. Understanding that I have my own biases, I see an allegory.

I am a Christian and I accept AVATAR as the fictional story that it is. We use stories to relate truths to one another and AVATAR has some good things to say if we can get past our rose-colored glasses.

AVATAR Has Something to Say About Your Politics

The Christian right, myself included, was taken in by fascist propaganda with the election of George W. Bush and especially after 9/11. We all believed that George W. Bush really was a Christian, and had God’s plans written on his heart. We listened to Sean Hannity rail against the lasciviousness of Clinton and longed for a change. Now we realize that Bush, while he may have been sincere at the time, has shown by his actions to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He did not hold a traditional Christian worldview. On the contrary, he embodies the worst of our Imperialistic Christianity that is Christian in name only. What has all of this to do with AVATAR? By Cameron’s own admission, the movie is a polemic against government-enabled corporate greed that rapes the environment and scrapes the people off the land. Those that see this movie as anti-American will shut off their critical thinking right there. And this is where I take a different path.

I started out as a Reagan Republican. I graduated from the Air Force Academy. I have served my country to the best of my ability. But along the way something has changed. I don’t know if I am only now discovering the neoconservative agenda that has been present in some form since before 1900; or, if the neoconservatives have finally gained power in the 20 to 30 years since I was a boy. But what is currently popularized as patriotism is nothing of the sort. It is more properly defined as Nationalism, or jingoism. America and other corporate controlled countries operate as imperial powers in the finest traditions of the colonial powers in the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries. AVATAR uses a familiar story to illustrate just what this looks like in 3D.

AVATAR, for me, speaks first to the political spectrum. It is not anti-American to challenge the corporate greed and lust for blood that has become the hallmark of American wars the last few decades. This is what Cameron is doing. He is challenging the assumption that resource acquisition at all costs is an amoral issue. Politically, I guess this puts me in the “Liberal Left.” I disagree with the label. Instead, we should be focusing on core beliefs and world views and how those views cause us to treat our fellow human beings. I applaud Cameron’s critique because the story, though often told, challenges our political assumption that whatever America is doing must be right.

While my politics have changed since I was in the Air Force, something else has changed in me as well.

AVATAR Has Something to Say About Your Spirituality

AVATAR is a great picture of new birth, new life, and second chances. This is precisely what is promised in the Gospel of Jesus Christ: that we will live forever with God and Christ in new bodies. I’m also reminded of the verse that talks about the whole creation groaning waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. In my understanding, the verse refers to people who will treat the earth and all of its life with respect. This bears out with the natural inclination of most people to care for a wounded animal. There is something tender in our hearts to other life and I believe that was put there by God. I know many have criticized the pantheism or ancestor worship of the film, but it led me to see what is true in the Christian tradition; that is, that we are to be stewards of the earth and not takers only. We are not to strip all of its resources and dump them in a hole or in the ocean when we are done with them.

So why do we support an economic model that treats as linear a finite, circular biology? I want to challenge the traditional American notion that we are to take as many resources as possible, by force if necessary.

I also challenge the notion that it is un-Christian and “Liberal” to support environmental causes. I tire of the language that we use to box ourselves in when the arguments belong in a different arena altogether. Let’s shed these monikers of Liberal or Conservative. Let’s stop demonizing one another because of our pet issues. Christians of all nationalities owe their allegiance to Christ first, not the state. I’m told the United States Marine creed is “Country, Corps, God, Family” in that order. What an affront to God! Christians should see that this is idolatry! Ah, but I digress.

I have a question for Christians who support what America is doing right now in Iraq: “What is so Christian about dispossessing people of their land and resources, killing them if necessary to obtain it?” What was so Christian about destroying the Native American cultures in the 1800’s to make room for white settlers? What was so Christian about the British East India Company (and later Britain) subjugating the continent of India from 1612 to 1948? If the U.S. truly cares about nations, why have we intervened in Afghanistan, but not Rwanda? I will tell you why. Rwanda had no strategic diplomatic benefit, nor did it have any resources important to the United States. This should be a big eye-opener to Christians that the United States government does not make decisions based on a Christian understanding. They behave as nation-states have for hundreds of years: in their own self interest. Even though AVATAR uses a well-known story, that doesn’t make its critiques any less impactful. Indeed, a simple story is what’s needed to shock people out of their slumber.

AVATAR allowed me a fantastic glimpse of what Heaven could be like. It led me to examine what is promised to Christians after death. Pandora is allegory for Heaven. I know the depictions aren’t biblical, especially with all of the fierce creatures waiting to eat you, but it did emphasize Christian themes: community, respect for all life, respect for elders, respect for proper authority, and courage to challenge immoral authority. Those things don’t need to be told in a setting that matches what the Bible says. An intelligent person should be able to separate story from reality.

AVATAR makes a strong statement. Politically, it challenges nation-state hegemony. It challenges unchecked corporate greed. It personifies the evil of taking what you want, consequences be damned. Spiritually, it leads me to the best of Christian traditions: courage, community, honor, and humility. (Jake humbled himself and admitted when he was wrong) I see a hero literally born again into a new body. This parallels the Christian understanding of new birth when you are saved and then new life and a new body after death. The story challenges us to become better stewards of our own earth. The story inspired me about the joys of living in a vibrant community that respects life.

As I stated in the beginning of this article, the critics will see what they want to see in this movie. I saw a triumphant vision of what life could be like. I saw a people unashamed of their traditions. I saw a hero transformed from a broken servant of the company into a man of courage, conviction, and moral clarity. What’s not to like about that? Would that we all could have the courage of our convictions, fight for what is right, and be unashamed of who we are as humans, as Americans, and as Christians.

Liberty Lessons From a Co-worker

I learned this morning that a co-worker of mine is answering emails for work from the hospital. He is answering emails right before he is ready to go into open heart surgery! This is the saddest commentary on what is wrong with our collective corporate life and what it does to a man, a child of God. He is doing this not because he is a shareholder, reaping great exponential profits from the company, but simply out of a misguided sense of loyalty to a company that pays him the minimum salary that the market will bear for his services. I'm sure there are more extreme stories of company serfdom, but this is the first time I've seen it up close. It is disgusting to think that we as human beings have been reduced to this. If he dies, the company will go on. His position will be filled by another. And the cycle of stress that led to heart trouble will continue because all companies serve the god of this world, the idol of money. We believe that the passionate pursuit of money is our highest calling. Even in the Christian community, many of our ministries have been co-opted by the idea of massive fund raising to support world-wide ministries where the leaders of those ministries live like royalty. And I'm only talking about the genuinely altruistic ones. The rest, similar to the Kenneth Copelands of the world, are brazen in their pride and pursuit of opulent wealth that they spend only on themselves. My brothers and sisters, it ought not be so.

We talk much of freedom and liberty in this country. But the truth is that we
are all slaves to an economic system that makes it very difficult for people to
be self-sufficient financially. I argue that true freedom starts with the internal freedom that comes from becoming a follower of Christ. But second and most importantly after our spiritual relationship, we must strive to be financially free. For some this means God blesses with relative wealth. For others, like the missionaries, it means they divest themselves of most worldly goods and make themselves available to God's specific work. What about those of us in the middle? Is there an answer? The Bible gives its answer in 1st Thessalonians:

To make it your ambition and definitely endeavor to live quietly and peacefully, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you, so that you may bear yourselves becomingly and be correct and honorable and command the respect of the outside world, being dependent on nobody [self-supporting] and having need of nothing. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 - Amplified version

11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-13 (New King James Version)
New King James Version (NKJV)

I believe God will honor our efforts in any area that will lead to our financial freedom. It is honoring to His kingdom when we can say what we really believe without fear of losing our jobs.

We were not meant to be cogs in a corporate machine, but citizens of the kingdom of God. So sad for this guy. I hope and pray this will not be me and that no matter what the cost, I can get out from under the thumb of a corporate machine that only seeks to drain my human resources as ruthlessly as it does the Earth's natural resources. Make no mistake, we are to be in the world being salt and light, but we are not to be of the world. We compromise ourselves when we succumb to the world's system to meet our needs. Some people will be called to work in the Corporate system. But most of us have been brainwashed by a corrupt school system that teaches two erroneous concepts: A good job and Retirement.

Nowhere in the New Testament does God teach us to work towards getting a good job. It does teach us to work at whatever we find to do with all our heart, but those goals should be God centered and not self-centered. It teaches us to be content with whatever state we find ourselves in, but does not teach us to roll over and be a part of a corrupt system especially when we live in a society where it is within our power to remove ourselves from that system. We were not literally born into slavery in most of the Western world. We were born into free societies where it is in our power to learn to work for ourselves and small companies where the company is small enough to be accountable to those it employs through profit sharing.

No, the concept of a good job is a lie foisted upon us by Socialists in the late 1800's that believed that the best way to answer the problem of over-production was to produce a nation of consumers. Teach people to want more than they can use and then make those products of such low quality that they must be replaced and the never ending consumerist society was born. They taught us to want a good job so that we could buy crap we don't need to impress people who don't care. Who of us was ever taught to work for yourself through the public school system?

This leads to the other lie taught to us by our corporate run schools:
Retirement. When you are not self-sufficient, you must work and save money separately so that someday you can finally do what God placed in your heart to do. Society calls it Retirement: A narcissistic time when you can finally eat drink and be merry. It is focused on entertainment and a life of ease. This is not at all what Jesus has called us to. For those that still believe that many goods stored up for many years is the goal, I refer you to Jesus' parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:13 - 21. God calls us to live out what he has placed in our hearts today, not when our life has been spent in pursuit of the good life and our best years are behind us.

There is a Libertarian movement afoot that seeks to restore the Republic of the
United States to a very limited Federal government and many more free market benefits than we are enjoying today. I argue that no citizen can think of being free until he is first free from the financial bondage that public schools brainwash him or her into joining. There is a better way. Each human being must decide for themself that they will not be a slave to the corporate machine. They must find their own way in the free market to earn enough for their families to be self-sufficient. We must, all of us, seek to avoid the bondage that causes a man to be writing emails to his company hours before open heart surgery. We must be free.

My response to a Liberals vs. Conservatives Email

This post is an email response I sent to family and friends recently about why gasoline prices are so high in California. I can't find the original article which was supposedly written by Christopher Van. Since I can't find the original post, I'll just summarize by saying that the premise of high gas prices was because Liberal environmental wackos kept the oil companies from building new refineries, no drilling in the ANWR, and a lack of research of oil availability off the coasts of Florida and California. I disagreed with those simplistic premises and here is my response:

I am weary of the debate being defined as one of liberal ideology versus conservatism. To properly define these terms, you need to know that American Conservatism is merely the right leaning form of European Liberalism. True Conservatism is not practiced in this country. It was started in Europe as a way to preserve the elitist monarchy power structure in the face of liberal democratic change. That democratic change saw some success in Europe but has found its fullest expression here in America. To define the problem with oil prices purely in terms of liberal ideology misses the point and needlessly divides concerned, intelligent, thinking Americans by use of name calling and misunderstandings.

There are other factors at play that have caused the price of oil to rise so precipitously in recent months. The oil companies are efficient at extracting profit from capital and resources. If they haven't built any refineries since the 1970's, you have to ask yourself why. The excuse that "liberal environmental wackos" are keeping them from building refineries is a red herring meant to obfuscate the fact that oil supplies have dwindled to the point that it is not profitable to build any new refineries. We need to check our facts about ANWR as well. According to the Department of Energy, oil from ANWR will only reduce the cost of gasoline by .50 cents per gallon. ANWR only contains 10 billion barrels of oil - or about the amount the US consumes in a little more than a year. Hardly enough for a generation unless we somehow construct a world class electric rail and trolley system for public transportation in the next 5 years. But unfortunately, the automobile industry made sure those were dismantled. As with all oil projects, ANWR will take about 10 years to come online. Once it does, its production will peak at 875,000 barrels per day - but not till the year 2025. By then the US is projected to need a whopping 35 million barrels per day while the world is projected to need 120 million barrels per day.

I don't have any facts about possible oil in the Florida and California seabeds, but given the decline in ocean fisheries, decline of marine reefs, and rise of red bloom algae and jellyfish (a sign that their food, garbage and slime, is increasing in the ocean), our seas are not in good shape. I hardly think destroying more marine life for the sake of oil is the answer to our energy needs.

I may sound like a liberal, but I've served my country as an Air Force Officer.
For that matter, I was a Reagan Republican. As a Christian, I can't even get the "Liberals" to think critically about other social issues because of their own biases toward "Conservatives." But you have to ask how a social Conservative like myself and former military member has come to hold seemingly Liberal views. The answer is that I've learned through much discussion and humility to put down the labels with which we try and define ourselves. I don't fit a category and neither should any of us. We are all human beings first.
Perhaps we are also children of God, if you've made that choice. The point is that we should be looking for things that unite us. We need to be thinking outside of the box when it comes to energy, the environment, social issues, and
politics. One point on the environment is that it is not a liberal issue at
all. They've simply co-opted it. If anything, Christians should be the staunchest environmentalists because we are called to steward this earth God has given us. Historically, we haven't done a good job in that area.

So, I humbly ask those on this email thread to open your eyes to what is really going on around us. As my grandfather is teaching me, it is a spiritual battle first that cannot be won through the accession to prominence of any one political ideology. If you want an ideology to combat that has factually rolled back some of our freedoms in recent years, look into the neo-conservative movement that has infiltrated the Republican party. The leadership has some very different ideas of freedom from what you and I would consider true freedom.

For anyone interested, I can send you a plethora of websites, well balanced on both sides of the political issues, to begin your research. I applaud anyone that wants to become better informed. Indeed, it is the RESPONSIBILITY of free Citizens to be informed of the issues and their stances on them. We ought not vote for Obama merely due to popularity, nor Hillary because she's a woman, nor McCain simply because he is the lesser of the 2 evil choices in the upcoming presidential election.

I'll stop here. I'm sorry to preach, but I get frustrated at the narrow-minded labels that continue to divide us. I felt I had to say something because the problem is simply not that evil liberals are trying to take our SUV's and our tax money. The issues are much more complex and broad than that. Only an informed populace can truly be free. So, I'll say humbly again that we need to educate ourselves and not fall prey to platitudes from Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or George Soros or Bill Maher.

Should the United States boycott the Olympics because of China's violent treatment of Tibet?

Should the United States boycott the Olympics because of China's violent treatment of Tibet - among other things like the persecution of Christians?

Any discussion of boycotting China has to start with the United States' foreign policy toward China since the Nixon administration. In my opinion, 30+ years of economic detente with one of the last bastions of pure communism in the world shows that our true interests are dominated more by greed than by charity. Starting with Nixon and then every Presidential administration since then, to a nation that instituted the damnable one child policy and forced abortions on couples unwilling to comply, we have given Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status. Since then, we've been attached at the hip to a country that willingly uses slave labor to produce cheap goods for our purely consumerist economy. Boycotting based on their treatment of Tibet does not nearly approach the appropriate level of sanctions that need to be levied were we serious about bringing China to accountability for their human rights abuses.

As it stands, neither country can do without the other. China needs us to keep buying their cheap goods at Wal-Mart while we need China to be first in line at the daily T-Bill auctions to continue propping up our weak dollar. Anything seen to threaten that grotesque symbiotic relationship will not be tolerated. Furthermore, the 1980 boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow did little to curb communism in the Soviet Union. It was merely a public notice of what was already going on behind the scenes economically to thwart communist expansion. The boycott was symbolic and only served to hurt our athletes that had prepared their entire lives to peak for that slim window of opportunity for athletic glory.

As Christians, we should be using the Olympics as further opportunity to bolster the underground church in China. The Olympics are an open door to showcase the failures of communist ideologies while contrasting them with the successes of Christian philosophies. I'm convinced that the only thing we can do for communist China is continue to try and win a new People's Cultural Revolution by winning hearts and minds in the underground Christian church. When enough people change their beliefs about God and themselves, they will then be equipped, strengthened, and motivated to change their government.

Sadly, the same could be said about the United States...

We're not in Kansas anymore!

The headline is an homage to The Wizard of Oz. I mean to convey the irony of thinking we live in a type of society that just doesn't exist anymore. At the time of the Wizard of Oz, we were full of hope, determination, grim entry into WWII, and people coming together for the common good. We've replaced The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, Presidential Signing Statements, The Ministry of Homeland Security (oops, sorry for the Freudian slip) I mean the Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Tasers, The Police State, Blackwater, and possible Martial Law.

In recent weeks, I've tried to extricate myself from all of the negativity of the news items, blogs, and political issues I follow. I've tried very hard to tell myself to just be positive. Things cannot be all that bad. I went and counseled with a couple of mentors recently and they advised that I stop being so angry and just serve at the discretion of the companies who pay my paycheck. What they don't realize is that what we've been called to as "servants" is serfdom. Now before I go too far on this rant, these individuals had the best intentions and I know what they said was good advice for prospering under the current system. And I do thank them for the advice, because it does work. However, for me, it comes with a cost tag attached. Namely, my spirit. Now on to the rest of the rant.

You remember serfdom right? It's that archaic state of being that has been coming back into vogue since the dawn of the industrial age.

Wikipedia defines it well:

Serfdom is the socio-economic status of peasants under feudalism, and specifically relates to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery seen primarily during the Middle Ages in Europe. Serfdom was the enforced labour of serfs on the fields of landowners, in return for protection and the right to work on their leased fields.

More and more, this describes the current state of middle class America. When I bought my house, I only bought the right to live in the house. I don't actually own the land underneath the house. The state retained mineral rights to my property. I have to ask permission to dig or be slapped with a fine.

The lack of real choice extends further than any of us realizes. There is a legal tenet known as parens patriae that grants to the state the ability to usurp the rights of the natural parent. Under this theory is born the justification for mass public schooling. Even now, this is being applied to force vaccinations on students under threat of jail for the parents. This is happening in the United States of America. We have a very real class system that determines who will be poor, who will be middle class, and who will be in the elite. Your income determines where you will live and the level of education your children will receive. And worst of all, power is being consolidated into the hands of the twin central power brokers. Can you guess who they are? The Government and the Corporatocracy. In ages past, people feared the Church. What has been proven is that tyranny is no respecter of philosophies. Tyranny is inherent in the size of a ruling body. Such are the problems we are faced with today.

So during my morning news checks I come across the following tidbits. First, I learn that Wal-Mart has pursued and won on appeal a court case to recoup medical costs from a former employee. What did this woman do wrong? She trusted that companies have some kind of moral responsibility not to screw it's workers 10 ways from Sunday. Some of that restraint may have been evident in previous decades, but those shackles were thrown off long ago as greed has worked its way more deeply into our society. I can only wistfully think that Sam Walton is rolling over in his grave today. To think that the legacy he left his children is being usurped by those same children of such unsavory character as to allow a case like this to pass without comment, without compassion.

But the atrocities don't stop with the compromising corporations. Oh no. They learned it first from the new government "above the people, disdaining of the people, and undermining of the people." Yes, our wonderful government might as well just re institute the draft. It would be better than the false promises of bonuses and college educations. What good is a college education if you're not alive to attend? You see here, the good ol' US of A is claiming that since enlistees cannot fulfill their military obligation, they are not entitled to the bonuses that secured their enlistments in the first place. But it's not surprising since many of these men and women are viewed as little more than cannon fodder. And why should the U.S. government worry about good publicity? They don't have to. We are their captive audience and there is no where else we can go to complain.

You see, the moral of this story is that no contract with a large organization is ever going to be in your favor. You have no power. You are a Serf to "them." "Them" includes any organization that has grown large enough to be out of touch with the responsibility and accountability of it's services to those it means to govern or sell products and services to.

It is folly for us to believe that simply "voting with our dollars or votes" will change anything. The economic concept of Economies of Scale dictates that a large enough enterprise can withstand a large amount of disruption without seriously endangering the life of that entity. In layman's terms it means that the U.S. Government and many large corporations such as Wal-Mart have gotten too big for their britches. It's time we do something about it.

I'll bet you think I'm going to advocate a call to arms. Join a militia. Move to Vermont or some such. Are you crazy? Don't you know that Big Brother (read NSA) is monitoring all of our communications? Didn't you see what happened to Ruby Ridge? Waco? New Orleans? No. I'm smarter than to advocate that. But there are some things all of us can do.

First, get out of debt. I'm as deep in it as the next person so I feel your pain at the thought of resolving that problem. But the fact remains that the debtor is truly slave to the lender. You have no voice until that happens. Second, learn to live simply and work with your hands. Do you really need that McMansion? Do you really need the new iPhone? Sure it's cool. But do you NEED it?!? There are stories floating around about some people who are protesting the war by paying zero taxes. How do they do it? They have no taxable income. You can read about one of them here.

Next, pull your children out of public schools. They are not there to give your children an education. They are there to inculcate the children with the values of the state, regardless of the wishes of the parents. The children are indoctrinated as much as possible to give allegiance to the state first, God and and Family second. Did you know that our model for public schools comes from the Prussian model of a militarized state? How is it that the American populace was better educated and better informed in the late 1700's and early 1800's than they are today when there were no public schools as we see them today? It's a question worth considering. The school system today is designed to turn out workers for the corporate system. It is clearly not designed to educate. It may be different at the elite Ivy League schools or some obscure Christian colleges, but the great majority are designed for job specialization and indoctrination. I wouldn't really know because I attended a school of military indoctrination known as a Service Academy. It's taken me years to claw my way back to some semblance of critical thinking. For more on the history of our educational system, I highly recommend John Taylor Gatto's book, The Underground History of American Education. You can find it and other information at his website here.

Finally, we need to invest in one another again, without the meddling of a middle man. We need to buy our food locally. Or better yet, we need to grow our own food locally. We need to shop at companies that share our values instead of trampling on them. How can we sleep at night knowing we shop at a company that cares more about money than the life of a human being? We need to know our neighbours. We need to know our merchants. There is an investment idea known as Solari. I haven't really researched it so I don't know exactly what they are selling, but the central idea as I understand it is to invest in one another instead of through the bank. We have power in our local communities if we simply stop giving our money to the "Mega Mega Big ___ You Corporation" and instead use it to invest in each other. I don't know if Solari is advocating this, but why can't we pool our money for local car insurance? Why don't we pool it for local health insurance? What about a community supported farm in the neighborhood instead of just playgrounds? Instead of going to the bank for investment capital, why don't we go to our local community with the business idea that needs some funding? As we re-localize, I believe we can all decide to stop feeding the rat race machine and then decide to get off together.

This is my dream. What's yours? Remember the Monster.com commercial during the Super Bowl some year ago? You had the ironic children wishing to grow up and be middle managers and "yes" men. Of course, none of us dreams of that when we were children. So why do we settle for it now? As long as we have breath, it's not too late to start making the changes we know we need to make.

Why being rich does indeed buy happiness

Pick any specialty item that requires more research and understanding. This item is safer, longer lasting, and a much better value. Think Volvo instead of Chevrolet. Think toys from high-end toy store down the road instead of lead based toys from China. Think suburban schools instead of urban blight. Since the specialty items require advanced access to information via probably the Internet (since you're not going to hear about it on the news) and the ability to purchase a higher priced specialty item, only the well off middle class and above will be able to afford said specialty item. As soon as you start going down that line of thought, you find all kinds of alarming things that the "rich" have that the common man doesn't:

1. Since I live in the West, I already have better sanitation and access to clean food and water than many in the rest of the world.

2. Since I live in the U.S., I'm not crammed into ramshackle huts of 15 to a hut to live on a dirt floor.

3. Since I'm college educated, I have access to jobs that pay significantly better than those without a degree (but only to a point).

So, at least Im marginally healthy and can choose not to be really poor and I don't live in the slums. But the benefits expand as you enter the next level up:

4. The truly rich can choose to live in more rural areas without the air pollution of the cities.

5. The truly rich can afford to buy organic food (much more expensive) rather than the chemically treated food in the normal supply chain.

6. The truly rich can afford to get a full 8 - 10 hours of sleep a night. The poor often must work 2 jobs (or more) to make ends meet.

7. The truly rich can afford better education for their children through private or home schooling.

8. The truly rich can buy entrance into the Ivy League for their children, effecting a step up for the family

9. The truly rich can afford to live in better neighborhoods that, even if their children don't go to private school, their schools are better, their libraries are better, their community is just safer.

10. The truly rich have the leisure time to exercise and take care of their bodies because they are not stuck commuting 2 or more hours a day to their jobs.

11. The truly rich don't have to pay for health insurance, they just pay as they go and since they are healthier in general, don't have to go to the doctor as much. So they get to save their health insurance premiums. Either I or my company will pay $10,000 per family in premiums every year.

12. Finally, the truly rich have the free time, education, health, creativity, money, and access to opportunities for furthering their wealth through new ventures. This solidifies their status for themselves and their families.

So there you have 12 reasons why money does indeed buy happiness, and I'm just getting started! So the rich will be able to afford a chemical free mattress while the rest will die in ignorance.

A Christian Perspective on Peak Oil

I've been reading about Peak Oil for the past couple of years. For those of you new to the subject, it simply means we are approaching, or have crossed, the point where the amount of oil we can profitably pull from the ground has reached its highest point. Despite surging demand, there won't be enough oil to meet demand once you've passed the "peak." For further information and analysis, please see the web's best site on these issues here: http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Index.html

What I want to talk about is our response to this issue. Most of the people who are aware of Peak Oil (hereafter PO) don't profess faith in Christianity. As I've been reading volumes of information, the general attitude is one of what we can do here and now to prepare. Yet the articles leave little room for hope. They're negative. Headlines read "Doomsday for the Greenback" or "The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI)" or "The Last Days of the Oil Age." While this may be true, the solutions tend toward one of three paths. Either get into community and start preparations, get yourself barricaded in a solitary fortress (equipped with guns, ammo, food, and water), or move to a distant, remote land free of any dependence on fossil fuels.

After reading my daily quota about PO, I often come away depressed. What is missing from the debate is a hope in God, a hope in Christ. Now to most in this community, this idea is laughed off. Many of them really do have an animosity and disdain for the intellect of those who claim belief in God. A favourite quote is "Who the hell are you to say I have to believe in the son of your sky god?" So naturally, this type of person is looking to current man-made efforts for a solution, even if that solution is merely survival.

But what if we have other options to approach the issue emotionally and spiritually? I'm not denying that there is a real problem. Corporatism, the dumbing down of Education, Consumerism, Greed, Apathy, and other social ills plague and threaten us. In the face of these problems, we can still look to God for our salvation and our comfort. When I say "salvation" I mean salvation of our souls, our spirits. I don't mean to imply that we are going to survive physically. Yet, there is a better response than depending on our own efforts and remaining depressed and overcome by fear of what's coming. To prove my point, walk back with me through Christian history and see if our fore bearers have any lessons to teach us.

During and for decades after the Apostolic age, Christians faced persecution, social isolation, and martyrdom. Yet a perusal of Foxe's Book of Martyrs shows that hundreds and thousands willingly died with hope in their hearts for something better. These societies had no oil. Yet they persevered. They didn't have cars and planes, but war and death were much closer to them. They had a correct view of life and death. For the Christian, this life is meant as preparation for eternal life. That we all must someday die, no one would question. How we approach that impending death makes all the difference.

A common fallacy attributed to the Christian faith is that becoming a Christian means that all will be well and you'll live in peace and security for the rest of your life. This is not at all what the Bible teaches. Our purpose is to learn to love God and show that we are good stewards over what little we have here so that we are ready to steward whatever God has for us in the next life. Often, God asks us to give our lives for what is right, not knowing whether He will save us or let us pass on to eternity. I always loved the lesson of the fiery furnace. These men stated their faith clearly: "Our God is able to save us. But even if He doesn't, neither will we bow down and worship." I submit that this is the attitude we should have towards PO.

As I've been reading, I regard my obsession to be an idol. In other words, I'm worshiping at the idol of PO. I believe all of the bad things written and so wring my hands and try to figure out what emergency measures I can take to be prepared. This attitude has led not to action, but to inaction, despair, and apathy. However, when I put my faith and focus on God, He gives me the wherewithal to weather this storm much like any storm.

Is PO going to change our lives? I believe that it will. But I also believe that as Christians, we can depend on God to help us in our planning for this event. We can depend on God to care and sustain us through it if that is His will. If it is not His will, then we can depend on God to see us through death's door. Whether that comes from defending my family, starvation, or work camps, I know that God has a reason in all that He does. Of course, this is a worst-case scenario that I don't believe is going to happen soon, if at all.

I don't believe PO is going to bring a crash quickly. The U.S. is currently the world's number one consumer. I know all the economic theories about why this is a bad thing, but this has been decades in the making and will be decades in the unraveling. Were it to crash suddenly, many fortunes of the elite would be lost and I can't see them allowing that to happen. No, we are going to slowly draw down. Unemployment will increase to as much as 30% to 40%. Fewer people will be able to afford the cars or the fuel to run them. This is actually going to be worse for us as that softens the blow but extinguishes the resources upon which we all depend. Ethanol is already driving up the price of food all along the food chain. So the rich are going to literally be driving our food while many will starve.

For the Christian, that does not bring cause for despair. This is the normal state of things in a fallen world! We need to understand that this time in history; this time of abundance and peace (so-called), is an aberration. No matter what our predicament, we should trust God. Prepare as you are being led, but don't let despair or predictions of imminent collapse dissuade you from your work. As for me, I'm going to stop reading about trends and issues I can do little to change. I can't control the fate of the dollar. I can't control the fate of the trade deficit. I can't control who is in which back rooms making secret deals that will wreck me and my family. So why keep reading it? I'm going to stop and put my efforts into productive means. I'm still stuck in suburbia and corporate america, but I'm working to extricate myself. Here are the basics:

0. THROW OUT YOUR TELEVISION!!! Do this before starting anything else. It is the key to putting a halt to the brainwashing in our culture. Psychologically based advertising has been in place for a few decades now and makes us want stuff we don't need, to impress people who don't care. (Don't believe me? What shoes would you rather have? Nike or Trax? Why do you think that is?) Then we put it all in landfills and start the cycle all over again. It's called "planned obsolescence" and is the bane of our society. To quote Neil Postman, we are amusing ourselves to death! I'm serious. Throw out the TV. You won't have time for it anyway if you're serious about preparing for PO.
1. Get out of debt
2. Start buying tools and equipment that you will need post-collapse now. The prices won't ever go any lower than they are right now.
3. Invest in PO. I know it's a bit unsavory; however, stop beating your head against the evil corporate system and use it to profit now while you can. I've read countless books and articles on the terrible corporate system and I'm convinced that no amount of activism is going to change anything. I'm going to stop wasting my time. So, buy oil stocks. If we invade Iran, the price of oil will skyrocket immediately. Sell when it gets to $100 or more after a few days.
4. Build a community around yourself and educate them. Many communities are already starting.
5. Listen and do what God tells you to do. That may be staying in the cities and sacrificing yourself so that someone else might hear the Gospel. That may be staying in your community. In severe circumstances, it is the Christians who make the difference. I don't think God would tell us to hide ourselves in remote places. To do that says that we value this life more than we value other people and God's direction. As one example, it was the Christians who started hospitals in the Middle Ages to care for those suffering from the Plague. This is the example God will want us to set.

In conclusion, PO leads the Christian down the primrose path to despair and inaction. If you're not careful, it could lead you to lose faith. There is little you can do to stop what's coming. Educate yourself on what is happening and why and then get out of that academic pursuit. Spend the rest of your time on preparation and living as God would have you live. That means living simply, working with your hands, doing good to widows and orphans, staying out of debt, not collecting mountains of useless junk, recycling, etc. Steward well what we have because this is the peak of our civilization. But as we are on the downward slope, realize that other Christians in other collapsing civilizations in other ages have gone before you and are the cloud of witnesses spurring us on to our own victories. We are the ones in the arena now. It is our time to shine. Where does the strength come from to see the race to its end? From within. For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you!

Thoughts on Loyalty

After an uneventful 4th of July, I got to thinking about the power of the state and how our loyalties are manipulated for others' interests. I came across this issue a few years ago when reading about the issue of Parens Patriae. Parens Patriae means literally, "parent of the country." It refers traditionally to the role of STATE as sovereign and guardian of persons under legal disability. Parens Patriae originates from the English common law where the King had a royal prerogative to act as guardian to persons with legal disabilities such as infants. Many articles have been written on this issue. The most recent flare-up surrounding Alec Baldwin reflects his frustration towards having to parent in absentia, his daughter having been forcibly removed from his "custody" by the state. But I digress.

The issue is that we are forced to deal with a series of truth and lies as we are born and grow to maturity. The first loyalty is to your biological mother. Then it goes to a combination of your biological mother and father. Of course, this is only if they are not abusing you or have given you up for adoption. Then those children realize sooner or later that they were adopted and that their loyalty should lie with "those who loved them best." That's an interesting conundrum. After that, the child goes to school.

Once at school, the titanic struggle begins to separate the child from the values of their family. The child must decide whether to side with mom and/or dad or with what is being taught at school. Once into the teenage years, the loyalties shift again to siding with your peer group.

Then we either go to college or into the workforce. From here, your loyalties shift to the college, a specific fraternity or sorority, or some new social group that is found.

Then of course we arrive at our employers' place of business. We are told to be loyal to the company or we can't have our house or send our children to the neighborhood school.

From an early age, we are taught to have loyalty to the state. The highest of all ideals being to "die for your country." But what of loyalty to family, friends, or your religion?

My point is that after all of these fights for your loyalty and attention, it's no wonder that people give up and throw all of their identity behind a NASCAR driver or a sports team or their local Moose lodge (if any of those things still exist). I can see where a life of ignorance is can be happier than one of full knowledge.

Does anyone else suffer from such issues? How much better would it be if we only owed allegiance to our family? Or to the church? Or to our brother?

Response to Scoop Jackson's ESPN Page 2 post 11.2.05

I just read your article lambasting Phil Jackson for his recent remarks. I think he deserved it. But your tirade coupled with Phil's remarks only pulls back the curtain on trouble that is brewing in America. I happen to be white. My best friend in black. I was best man in his wedding. But, he is from Jamaica. I don't regard him as special because he's black. He's simply my best friend. But he's not from the culture you describe either. I couldn't be friends with a white guy from the Hip Hop culture you describe. And it's not because I feel any hate; it's because I don't have anything in common with my perception of the attitude emanating from that culture.

I'm very glad you included Eminem in your references. My contention has always been that we don't have a race problem in America, it is a culture clash problem, whether the people in that culture are black or white. I once argued with a black student of mine about blacks that had done well that are Republicans such as Colin Powel and Condoleeza rice. Her reaction? "They ain't black!" You know, she's right. They don't represent the Hip Hop culture that you ably defended in your column. They represent the ruling elite culture, regardless of color.

And that is the trouble brewing under the surface. I felt such intense righteous indignation and anger in your column. Phil Jackson probably feels the same frustration and incredulity (and hence anger) in his views. How are we going to come together? How do you begin to reconcile such disparate views?

I'm thankful you made the first step to redefine the argument away from skin color. No, it is a culture difference that is dividing Americans. We are no longer a melting-pot of cultures. Thanks to multi-culturism, we are all free to feel our culture is best with no outside objective standard of what is best or what could be worse.

I don't have the answers. I know that I don't identify with any attitude of Hip Hop. From my vantage point I see a lack of humility. I see "in your face" aggression. I see blatant flouting of civility and respect for others. I see a proud smirk that makes me just want to slap it off every face I see it on. Your culture seems to value power and money, no matter what it costs or where it leads people.

Granted, I'm not defending the Martha Stewarts, Karl Roves, or back-door dealings of Tom DeLay. I detest their "salesman-slick" smiles as they gently ease the knife in your back. I don’t represent those values either. I value honor, humility, integrity, truth, and competence. I value freedom, respect for others, and mutual understanding. I also value appeals to an absolute truth, that truth can be known and that there is a standard by which we should all measure ourselves, regardless of race, creed, or culture.

But, how can I come to the table when my counterpart values completely opposite things and will view my honor and humility as weakness? Therein lies the frustration that I feel and I would guess that most people I represent feel.

Thanks for opening the discourse. I'm willing to lay aside that past if you are. Can the Hip Hop culture get over it's anger over past hurts and realize that I and others in my generation are not responsible for past injuries? Will you be able to lay down your desire to lord your newfound economic power over others and have a civil discussion among equals? Am I racist for thinking such things?