Charles Martel Should Have Been a Pacifist

At least that's what many academics and "thought leader" authors would have American Christian men believe.

I'm looking for authentic examples of Christianity for men in America today. The Evangelical church has presented only one face. Here's what I see the Church today promoting:

The ideal Christian man in America loves his wife and practically worships her for all intents and purposes.  He keeps his promises to not dishonor her by looking at pornography. He promises not to cheat on her by having an affair with another woman (or man for that matter). These are not bad things. A Christian man should be faithful to his wife. He should not cheat on her or look at pornography. Perfect - I do agree. What else does the Church expect? They expect the man to live a purpose driven life. Yes, go out and make a difference, but only within established boundaries. Don't color outside the lines. Jesus wants you to keep your life and job intact. That purpose includes always looking inward and trying to be a better man so that he can lead his family spiritually. He volunteers to teach Sunday School. He even leads the men's ministry quarterly golf outing. He doesn't make waves. He supports his pastor during pastor appreciation month. He doesn't get involved politically because frankly he's too busy serving the church and his family and avoiding alcohol and pornography. Whew!

But isn't there more? I know the above is a caricature. There is much diversity, but how much is there really? Evangelicalism has emasculated men. Women run the Church and it has their imprint on it. How do I know? Look at how Mark Driscoll was vilified last year for daring to argue that perhaps Jesus was a special case with a special mission. That Jesus' ideas about non-violence have been misinterpreted. Oh yes, the emasculated men were out in force proudly proclaiming their pacifism and educating the rest of us just what Jesus meant by "real man." Of course, their feminist-inspired versions are correct and Mark Driscoll is a sad adult child of an alcoholic who just needs counseling from godless psychologists. Here's a link to the article.

Here's a critical question for men:  What would you do if the ISIS invaders came to your doorstep and threatened to kill your wife and children in front of you unless you converted to Islam?  What would you do in a home invasion where the intruders wanted to rape your wife in front of you?  Do you really think Jesus would have you turn the other cheek and call that holy while your wife and children were being murdered in front of you?  You really think that Jesus said you have no right of self-defense?

Or what about the machine gun preacher? Oh, he's horrid! Oh no!

Yep. We should just go protest and non-violently confront the kidnappers and war lords in Sudan. I'm sure they'll respond to your effeminate plea of "please Mr. bad man, please don't take these children! Oh. It's for the CHILDREN!" So, Christian men have no right to do whatever is necessary to help those children? Sam Childers isn't a Christian? Says who? You? Isn't that up to Jesus to decide?

And let's expand it a bit. The pacifists would say that Christians in Iraq and Syria, whose communities date back to the time of Christ, should just roll over and put their hands up and die wonderful martyrs deaths because such love is what will really convince those poor misled Muslims that Jesus is wonderful? Do Christians not have the right to defend their communities? Or should they turn the other cheek and let marauders come and burn their crops and starve them out?

I will concede that Imperialism as it has been practiced by Britain and the United States is a step too far. But to pull so far back that you won't even fight for your family is not only misguided, it is cowardly and sinful. Here's a gem from Revelation 21:8:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Interesting how both cowards and murderers are lumped together with the unbelievers and idolaters. I guess the whole lot of those commenters at RNS would throw stones at Charles Martel too. Don't know Charles Martel? You should. Without his bravery and his willingness to defend his borders, we may all be Christians in a Muslim land paying the jizya tax. Should he have just turned the other cheek?

These are the hard questions that the academics and theologians like to discuss while men like Sam Childers don't ask permission. They just go get it done. Mark Driscoll may be wrong, but at least he's wrong while taking action. I'll follow him rather than some effete author or pastor any day.

Where were the Christians leading the fight with Occupy Wall Street? Where are the Christians speaking out about the economic issues of the day? And why aren't pastors calling their congregations to simply stop paying taxes as a protest to Obamacare or Roe v. Wade? That's hard. I know. We have families to manage and raise. But God has called one person to do it. Read the link. Strong woman, which I say to the shame of most Christian men.

Vox Popoli: Social policies have long-term consequences

Vox Popoli: Social policies have long-term consequences:

Thoughts on recent EBT shutdown

Obama promised hope for America.  He said change was coming.  Too bad nobody bothered to ask him what he meant by "change."  It's not the kind of change we were expecting.

Here is where we are:

I got my EBT

Somebody OWES Me!

Obama is going to pay for my gas and mortgage!

Mr. Ghetto - Wally World

Now, check this out:  Tomorrowworld

What is this book they're worshiping?  It's called "The Book of Wisdom."  My wife nailed it.  "It looks like a video targeted at young white guys to spend their money hoping they can hook up with the fairies at the end." Notice that the tomorrowworld youtube site has over 2 million 400 thousand views!  And why are they kissing that book again?  Near as I can tell, it's just a scrapbook of pictures.

Here are some other interesting links to that "New Age Woodstock"

Book of Widsom

Tomorrowworld on Facebook

Billboard Article on American Version September 2013

A participant's view

Here's a quote from the last link:  "As I traveled to each of the stages, I was totally drawn to the DJ’s and how much power they have over the audience.  Almost like a God (in that setting)… they can take you wherever they want you to go. "

Yep.  Exactly like that.  Now I know why the Christians of yesterday instinctively knew that rock music and the accompanying stage productions were bad news:  they are modeled after pagan worship principles.

The Secret History of Rock and Roll

Why I left CCM

Why I've stopped singing in your church

Christian Rock is Pagan

In case you haven't noticed, we live in a post-Christian America.  The culture wars have largely been lost amidst a time of prosperity.  People are not motivated to seek Jesus while things are going so well.  Abortion on demand remains the law of the land.  Known perversions are held up as the ideal:  Greed, Pride, Selfishness. 

I'll bet you thought I was going to talk about homosexuality.  That battle has been lost as well.  While Christians have been distracted by the homosexual issue, the far more sinister ethic of "greed is good" has replaced Christian virtues of thrift and service.

Having a parallel culture of "Christian" music, clothes, schools, etc. hasn't stopped the moral decline of our nation.  When things go south, the unbelievers aren't going to come rushing to the churches saying "you were right."  They are going to ask why we didn't warn them.  I'll tell you PRECISELY why.

501(c)(3) - It's guidelines are contained in IRS Publication 1828 - Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations.  It's mere title should tell us that churches (and the individuals responsible for allowing the church to come under government rule) have sold out in order to keep more of the donated money than they otherwise would have by not paying taxes.  And what does this cost?  Here's a quote from page 5:

A church or religious organization will be regarded as
attempting to influence legislation if it contacts, or urges
the public to contact, members or employees of a legislative
body for the purpose of proposing, supporting, or
opposing legislation, or if the organization advocates the
adoption or rejection of legislation.

Now I wonder why Roe V. Wade is still in effect?  I wonder why the church hasn't had more to say about the U.S. government allowing it's currency to be loaned to it by the private bank called the Federal Reserve?  I wonder why the church hasn't moved to revoke the corporate charters of known environmental abusers such as Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.  Don't remember why Dow Chemical is bad?  Here is their most famous faux pas, The Bhopal Disaster.  Dow is chartered by the U.S. State of Delaware.  Were there ever any calls from the church for its dissolution in Delaware?  What else has Dow been involved in?  Check out this list:

• Agent Orange Use in Viet Nam
• Agent Orange Use in South Korea
• Violations of the Clean Air Act

This is a simple sample from just 15 minutes of research.  This is only what the public knows about.  What else is hidden?  Dow is just one example in a long list of corporations and governments that have not been held accountable because the church found itself compromised by it's 501(c)(3) status and would not speak out for fear of losing its tax-exempt status.

In conclusion, what do we do?  The individual people have a right to good leadership in the church that will lead them to be actual salt and light in their culture.  I think the only way to help people crippled by a generation of failed government dependency policies known as President Johnson's Great Society, is to abolish those handicapping handouts.

If even the zoo keepers know that feeding the animals makes them dependent, how could our government not understand this?!?

It boggles the mind; unless, it could be ON PURPOSE?

There is much to do.  Most of us, myself included, are landlocked into corporate wage slave jobs.  The church just wants to make more converts while disengaging from society.  For now, Christians who are walking with God and who form the real Church in America must simply prepare and look for solutions to change the mindset of people who will be violent and helpless in case of a shutdown.

We do that one person, one church, at a time.  Here is the best model I've seen so far.

Greek Thought or Hebrew Thought - Pythagoras or Samson?

Certain foundational assumptions have been hidden from us who grew up in the West, but as Christians.  When reading the Bible, it is important to understand that the writers were Hebrew.  Their thinking was Hebrew.  This affected all areas of knowledge.  For instance, in mathematics, they did not have the concept of zero.  That came later, from India.  It takes a certain philosophical perspective to think of there being nothing.  I suppose early Jewish thought just wasn't capable of that.  They also thought of prophecy in terms of having already been accomplished at the time the writer predicts in the prophecy.  The sentence and verb structure shows the prophecies to be in future perfect tense, as though it will have already happened.  Interesting.

Their poetry is not in rhythmic meter of language, but of ideas.  Hebrew poetry stressed opposites in order to drive home it's point.  I also think that it is a wonderful coincidence that Hebrew poetry can be translated into any language without losing the beauty of the thought comparisons we see in Psalms and Proverbs.

Finally, and the point of the rest of this post, is that Hebrew thought emphasized the knowledge and experience of God above all else.  Their first assumption was God Is.  That's it.  Nothing else was before God and so this colored their world view.

What we need to know is that the Greeks also have a presupposition; namely, that materialistic observation is the only source.  I may be wrong in this next statement, but I believe they thought the earth had simply always existed and this is why nature has been elevated to Nature in Greek thought.  They were always looking though for the first cause.  They see things in terms of cause and effect.  Not so with the Hebrew mind.  God is the first cause and so the first and best effect is communion with God.

From an article I read recently, I learned the following things:

• Worldviews are different, even at the grammatical level
• Hebrew verbs connote movement and dynamic variety
• Greek verbs are static or harmonic

• Greek:  rest, harmony, composure, self-control
• Hebrew:  movement, life, deep emotion, power

• Greek:  words are names and labels only - you haven't reached the truth yet
• Hebrew:  words have power; they are not names only but things

• Greek:  Classification of observable properties; Materialism
• Hebrew:  fundamental character of God in relation to His creation and connectedness of all things

• Greek:  Cause and effect while constantly trying to identify first causes
• Hebrew:  source of causality (God) overrides any other concern

• Greek:  Focus on the group to the abandonment of the individual
• Hebrew:  Focus on the individual's relationship to God

• Greek:  Thinking as the highest virtue
• Hebrew:  Commitment as the highest virtue

 This brings up many questions:

1. How did the early Gentiles come to faith without an understanding of the Hebrew concept of God? 
2. How do other cultures of today experience God without knowledge?
3. If people can come to faith without knowledge of the originating culture, doesn't this strike at the heart of Greek thought that says knowledge is the highest good?
1. As a correlation, isn't this search for truth and knowledge, as the Greeks practiced it -- apart from God -- the original sin?  Valuing knowledge of good and evil over the relationship and presence of God?
4. Why are we taught that heroes are scientists and stoics?  From Pythagoras to Spock, we're taught that the "Rational" man is the ideal man.  I believe that this has led to much error.  It has gone so far that many Christians blindly follow Ayn Rand's Objectivism without realizing she was an avowed atheist and despised Christianity.  There's not much charity in Rand's world.
5. The hero of the Greeks is a stoic thinking man.  The hero of the Hebrews is an Artist:  David.
6. Who would you rather have in a fight?  Samson or Spock?

These foundational assumptions of viewing the world are hidden to us in the West.  The fact of going to school, being controlled by bells on the hour, the idea that rationalism is the highest good are all taken for granted that this is the way life should be lived.  Why aren't these assumptions brought to the surface for scrutiny in Sunday School?  In religious education?  For instance, I've learned that  school as we know it is actually a Prussian invention designed to make people obedient to structure.  In the 1800's, our progressive thought leaders adopted the Prussian system here in America to keep the class system in place (percentages are not exact). 

• Ruling Class - Top 2%
• Artisan Class - Top 5%
• Bureacratic (Management) Class - Top 15%
• Working Class - Bottom 80%

Isn't Theology just another name for Religious Philosophy?  And what is taught in the seminaries?  It seems that it is simply advanced education in Bible survey (no small thing, I know), the denomination's (depending on the seminary) version of accepted philosophy -- Systematic Theology, and Greek and Hebrew language.   I am acquainted with the Systematic Theology of only of Augustine, Aquinas, Wiley, Calvin, Arminius, Van Til, Tillich, and Luther, although I've only ever read parts of each (I have to make a living after all).

The point is that we are learning through a filter and we don't even know there is a filter.  When a pastor pointed out that Matthew was showing Jesus to be the seventh seven according to Daniel 9:25, it was the first time I had ever heard it.  And to be honest, I'll bet most of the congregation was still trying to figure out the math while he was trying to say the experience of God was more important.  I almost missed the central message as well.

I wrote a paper in Nazarene Bible college that argued for intensive Sunday School training for all parishioners. I have yet to see people coming out of graduate work with Christian degrees in Christian Education implementing these programs.  We don't know what we believe because from the very beginning, we're taught by our Greek Western schools first principles that deny God and exalt Materialism (that's the philosophy of Materialism and Observation, not in the Economic sense).  We're being handicapped and don't even know it.  I feel fortunate I've been led down a path to start having my eyes opened to these things.  There are some good programs in place that I do visit on a regular basis, but I'm sad that these are para church ministries whose ideas are not coming from the pulpit or Sunday School.

Stand To Reason
Reasonable Faith
Colson Center
Think Christianly
The High Calling
Institute for Creation Research

So, it's no wonder that faith isn't "taking" to the last 2 or 3 generations.  They don't have the tools to understand.  We are trained in Greek thought that values the Technocracy above experience with God.  The assumptions are in every book and every textbook.  I can't read a popular non-fiction book without running across it.  Here are three examples.

The Shallows:  What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains - The book has a quote that says "The greatest thing that Evolution has bequeathed to us is the ability of the Human Brain to reform itself."  It gives credit to the creation instead of God.

Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies - The entire book is predicated on an evolutionary understanding of man's development.  I've started it twice and can't get to the author's conclusion because I believe his first assumptions are entirely wrong.  They leave out God.  They leave out the Biblical understanding of the Flood and how it affected migration patterns.  I've had that book for five years and can't get through it.

Servant Leadership:  A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness - This was written by a long time IBM executive, Robert K. Greenleaf.  It has a forward by Stephen Covey, a known Mormon.  While Greenleaf is a bit more magnanimous, Covey (like Oswald Chambers, Norman V. Peale, Napoleon Hill, and more recent names like Tony Robbins) pulls principles directly from the Bible and then discards God while trying to say these things will work for everyone.  I'm reading the introduction and getting more and more incensed at the arrogance of Covey.  They are re-packaging God's ways and selling them as their own.  And we know that while God does bring the rain on the just and unjust, He doesn't just bless indiscriminately.  You must bow the knee to Christ to be given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I will admit that my own search for truth is leading me evermore to that next book, that next article, that next documentary that would bring me closer to knowledge, closer to the truth.  And I see that trap for what it is.  I see my own part in the original sin.  I'm wondering if the reason I'm trapped by that is because of my Western Aristotelian thinking.  How do we elevate God back to the center?  How do we get over our idea of Bible Study as the highest good instead of worship of God in Christ?  Even elevating the Bible above God is wrong.  I believe the answer is to get closer to the presence of God through the laying down of all this Western pursuit of perfection, efficiency, and knowledge through the senses only.  What we need is a true spiritual awakening.  Find God first, then get equipped with the Apologetics and Philosophy to combat the erroneous assumptions of our day. 

I'll leave you with a pithy quote from the article.  Actually, maybe I'm revising it a bit.  It was from Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book, G-d in Search of Man:  A Philosophy of Judaism, 1955, p. 216:

"Thinking without roots will bear flowers but not fruits"

I love this because look what our Technocracy has wrought.  We don't steward the Earth's resources well.  We don't treat our fellow man well.  Our business leaders follow Machiavelli instead of Jesus.  The very first principle taught in school is Materialism in our secular society.  The church has abandoned its people by not equipping them with the tools to combat that pernicious and destructive philosophy.  Worse, the people don't even know they're being poisoned.  Kids grow up, compare what they were taught in school with what they were taught in church and then come to the conclusion that because God can't be "proven" in a Materialistic way, that it must not be "true."  We've missed the point of what "true" really means in that case.  We have failed God and failed our children. 

We are so busy combating the symptoms of cultural decline (abortion, substance abuse, homosexuality) that we don't even see that the pillars of our faith have been co-opted by the Materialists and the Secularists.  They are building our children in their image because they have replaced our foundation of God with their foundation of Man.  The process takes awhile, but just look at Barna and Pew polls.  We are going the way of England and Europe.  Christian faith is waning even while the people are clamoring for some type of spiritual sustenance.  In a recent interview, Russell Brand claimed that what we need is a spiritual awakening.  He's a known devotee of Eastern philosophies.  He doesn't follow Christ.  Yet here is Russell Brand advocating for a spiritually led society.  He stated that he wants to do away with the barriers between church and state.  He knows that we are starving, suffering, and failing without it.

Why Internet Discussions Drift to Religious Discussions

Have you ever been perusing the comments of an article and then wonder how in the world people started talking about Nazis  or Atheism or Christianity and how that relates to the article above?  I'll tell you.  Everything relates to your worldview.  It is the lens through which people discuss issues and ideas.  This is why what you believe about God, Government, Society, Culture, etc. matter in the general sense.  Those beliefs inform people's opinions about specific issues.

What we see on the Internet is the same clash of worldviews that has been going on for centuries.  Most of the commentary is ill-informed and harsh because those discussing the issues have been largely educated by the corrupt American public school system.  They don't know that when God was taken out of the schools, that He was indeed replaced by another god:  Man.  The religion is known as Secular Humanism.  One of its proponents was John Dewey (no, not the Dewey Decimal System guy, that's Melvil Dewey - I've been mistaken on that before myself).

They have their own tenets of faith.  They have their own writings.  They have their own god.  The belief, and this stems from the Renaissance, is that Man as Man is the ultimate standard, the ultimate measure of all things.  That this is a religious view is lost on most people.

Instead, they like to belief that rationality and logic are the highest ideals and that Man does not need an appeal to anything greater than himself to have a well-ordered society.  And how has that worked out?  Not so well if you can read the signs of declining culture.  Jaques Barzun's magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence traces this decline in Western culture.  Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live also traces the decline from a Christian philosophic perspective.  And there are many good books on this subject.

The problem is that most people you encounter on the Internet just don't have the mental capacity to effectively debate one another on these issues without devolving into name calling.  Eventually all threads lead to Godwin's Law.  How unfortunate.

As this is my own blog, I can say what I please without being shouted down as it were by the ignorant masses who usually can't comprehend the references being made.  So, I will say this:
  
The Christian worldview is far and away the best, most logical, most beneficial, most intellectually satisfying of all the known world religions.  This is because it is true.  

It is true because it is enlivened and imbued with the very life of our Creator God, Jehovah.  God says that He will remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.  He says that He will make His home with us in our hearts.  That we will be His people and He shall be our God.

No claim of my being evil, or stupid, or ignorant, or biased changes the fact that God exists.  No shouting down of my opinion changes the FACT that Jesus the Christ came to live on this earth, die for our sins, then rise again to absolve ALL who believe in His name of their sins.

This fact cannot be shouted down in this post.  It can be ignored.  It can be ridiculed.  But it cannot be taken away! 

Now, I cannot help that the fact that Jesus stated that HE is the only way to God is incredibly offensive to some people.  I didn't say it.  I simply believe it.  I cannot save any of the people who call me evil, call me other names, etc.  Only God can save you.  I can only give you the warning as best I can.

One more thing I want to point out.  Invariably, it is the "tolerant" who show themselves to be the most intolerant.  It is the "easy love, anything goes" people who get the most angry and who show the most hate to those who disagree with their views.  It is the Liberal Left who are in fact the most authoritarian group in any society.  Their god is big government and they legislate by democratic fiat.

Remember that Benjamin Franklin said

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb getting together to decide what's for dinner."

So, to all my critics who click on my name, I hope they see this post.  I hope they see that they will be held accountable to God for their vitriol towards Christians.  Remember that God will not be mocked.  Please, please, please turn around and repent while you still have breath in your lungs.  Don't give up on God.  He really is chasing you.  Anyone who is sincerely seeking is welcome to send me an email for more information on how you can have a relationship with the living, risen Christ, Jesus.

For the rest, know that God will not always call, nor will you always hear his voice.  Seek God while He is near... Here is the rest of the verse from Isaiah 55:

⁶ Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Whose Kingdom are You Really Serving?

I think the Christian leaders we have today still exalt themselves to the detriment of others.  They claim that they are doing God's work, but what do we still see?  We see Charles Stanley get divorced.  We see many of them enjoying opulent lifestyles while the people struggle to send in $5 per month.

I believe the Christian culture in the West has been built as a mirror culture to deceive Christians and get them looking at the wrong thing.  How is Christendom different from the world JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have built?  Greed?  Check.  Licentiousness?  Check.  Pride?  Double-Check!

Even as Christians, we are made to believe that God's blessings are on the large para-church ministries while God has passed over the common church.  We are made to desire wealth and prestige.  This is not what the word of God says.

Theologians don't get a pass either.  Through the centuries they have exalted those at the head instead of those who labored in obscurity.  Paul is lauded while the other apostles are derided because they didn't write letters that survived to modern times.  But is this a fair characterization?  How do we really know what happened?  Why do we assume that just because they didn't write part of the Bible that they were failures?  Is it only the strong that rule in Christianity just like in the World?  Does might make right even in Christendom?

I don't believe so.  I believe Jesus called 12 apostles.  One, (Judas) chose (wasn't predestined!) but chose to walk away and betray Jesus.  ALL 11 of the remaining apostles made a difference in God's Kingdom.  We simply haven't heard the story of Andrew or Phillip or Bartholomew.  The book of Thomas is out there, but "not considered canonical."

Perhaps we need to revisit what the Protestant churches decided to take out of the Bible.  Apparently the book of Judith was in there until Martin Luther decided to exclude it.  Perhaps we have simply been done a disservice by our Protestant forbearers. And certainly the modern church has done a disservice to us by not properly explaining church history to us.  I don't believe Martin Luther's rebellious split from the Catholic church was necessarily ordained by God.

As a case in point, I was commenting on an issue on a blog and the discussion was flying back and forth.  A catholic poster mentioned that "this issue has been discussed for hundreds of years in the Catholic church and a pretty good conclusion arrived at."   It got me to wondering what other knowledge has been hidden from us.

Of course, it's not really hidden on purpose, but I believe most Protestants are making an ad hominem fallacy by disregarding ALL of the Catholic teaching just because they disagree with some of the other teachings (like Mariology).

Here's the bottom line:  We all have a contribution to make and God uses even the smallest act of service irrespective of it being recognized in our culture today.  Jesus said plainly that the first would be last and the last would be first.

I'm not so arrogant to think that I am going to be one of the "last" chosen first.  I know I enjoy blessings in the West that many in the world do not.  But I am making the argument that all of those we see exalted right now are not necessarily going to be rewarded above the church family in China in an underground church.

We must get our eyes off our brothers and sisters here on this earth and make our comparisons with what it says in the Word of God.  Jesus told us exactly how to be great in the Kingdom of God:  Be a servant to all.  Take courage.  God sees all of us.

Vox Popoli: The gold drain

Vox Popoli: The gold drain

Are We Getting Better or Worse Without God?

 I wrote this in reply to a documentary on Bill Moyers' website.  You can view it and the comments here.

Yes, thank your for dispelling Christianity from the classroom. Now instead of mandatory Christian training, we have the following:

A clear decline in morality since that time
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/usadecline.html

Mandatory sex education
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/mandatory-sex-ed-curriculum-new-york-city-public-schools-132404248.html

And at younger ages...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/02/28/chicago-passes-sex-ed-for-kindergartners/

With indoctrination into lifestyles that account for only 2 - 4 percent of the population
http://culturecampaign.blogspot.com/2009/09/parents-sue-school-over-mandatory.html
http://www.wnd.com/2006/04/35850/

(The WND article is from 2006 so of course all the links in the article are invalid. Those universities couldn't leave the incriminating evidence out there. Thankfully, webarchive has them for you:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060513042935/http://www.mansfield.osu.edu/courses/usas100/diversity.cfm

http://web.archive.org/web/20050305235154/http://www.osu.edu/diversity/dictionary.php

http://web.archive.org/web/20060513042914/http://multiculturalcenter.osu.edu/Posts/Documents/87_7.pdf

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
the above link is still alive

Culminating in "Sex Week" celebrations at our Ivy League colleges:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/yale-hosts-sex-week-explore-sexual-culture-including-incest-and-prostitution
http://bostinno.com/2012/10/24/harvard-sex-week-2012/
http://betteryale.org/why-say-no-sway

Still not convinced? Then why does the U.S. have the world's highest prison population?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Yep, that sure was a good idea to get God out of the classroom. How's that working out for you?

Hmmm... Now what could it be? Could it have been that if most of the population where Christian, they would be self-governing and have little need of more government, more prisons, or more "sex education?"

To find out what is really happening with American Education, please read John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education. The purpose is precisely indoctrination. And free-thinking people don't make good slaves or criminal prison fodder. Or cannon fodder for the U.S. Imperial Wars. You can read the whole book for free online. It was the first book that made the rest of my discoveries possible.

Please wake up. I know my post will infuriate many on this site, given the philosophies and tendencies. I'm not asking anyone to become Christian. You can take that up with God on your own. But please look around at what is happening politically, economically, and culturally. We all should be on the same side here. We all should be loving liberty.

And even though I argued that the decline was partially due to removing Christian instruction from schools, I don't believe that is the real reason. I believe the real reason is Christian parents from that era on not adequately passing on their values, which should be done at home.

It's just that a shared culture did keep back the decline and using the public school system was as convenient then as it is for the authoritarian statists of today. The public school should not be the place for indoctrination of Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Atheism, or Secular Humanism. But truthfully, Secular Humanism did indeed replace Christianity as the dominant religion in the schools. Check out Horace Mann and John Dewey.

While I lament the loss of Christianity in the culture, the answer isn't mass indoctrination through the schools. How many lapsed Catholics do you know? The answer is to find common ground in public spaces and turn the issues back to the states. Don't like attending mandatory Mormon training? Move out of Utah. We still have the right of association and that is where I believe the answer lays.

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.