I Do Solemnly Swear

"I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth and that I will discharge my duties with fidelity with no regard to lucre or profit," I heard these words, or words very similar, spoken a number of times recently as I witnessed our county officials take the oath of office. As I heard the words stated then repeated I was...solemnly....affected! More so because our son also took his oath as he became a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. The Declaration of Independence ends with these words, "And for the support of the Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Have we strayed as a nation from valuing our honor above our lifestyles, our personal security, even our futures? I do not doubt that these fifty-six men meant what they signed onto in this document. I took an oath when I entered the army in 1969 but was too immature to really understand the solemnity of it. I took wedding vows in 1976 and through God's grace I am still united in this gift. More recently, I took an oath as a juror and by this time in my life I felt the weight of the words I had spoken. Christianity itself is grounded on an oath...an oath taken by God alone. He led men of Old Testament times to know the importance of a covenant in order to covenant with them. Today we often witness the repercussions of a broken oath in a courtroom or before Congress, the result being an indictment of perjury, but even here do we go beyond the legal ramifications to what the signers of the Declaration of Independence referred to as sacred honor? When Mitt Romney took an oath in the Mormon Temple that he understood that if he revealed the secret oaths and vows thereof that he would pay with his life, did he believe it? Or was it something between a game and a life and death oath?  Barack Obama took his initial oath of office on the Capitol steps, with his hand on a King James Bible used by Abraham Lincoln.  There were some mistakes made by both he and Chief Justice Roberts that were labelled by some The flub heard round the world. Barack Obama began to repeat the words of Chief Justice Roberts a little bit early which in turn threw the Chief Justice off. After considering the situation, the oath was taken again the next day in the White House, with no Bible. The promise still was to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution. It was said that the first oath of office was valid.... but just in case. The Bible was obviously not important here but what about the meaning of the words? Or was that just protocol? I don't know how many times that while sitting on the beach on vacation someone would walk up and offer a very nice gift if only we gave a few hours of our time looking at a condo. The answer was always "no thank-you." Most recently, at Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach, dinner and a show..for two, was offered. There is no way on God's great and wonderful green earth that I am going to buy a condo. I tried to explain this but the response was that the owners fully understand the situation but make the offer anyway; but I'm the only one that fully understands the situation so the answer still has to be no thank-you. I can't take a quarter left in the change slot of a candy machine.  God  knows us more than we know ourselves. Therein is the key. To the politician, to the lawyer, to the juror or witness, to the groom...whether it be an oath or just a statement to another person, we should know that God records our words. Herein is but one step in America's recovery, that our elected and appointed leaders take that oath very seriously, and also in the vein that it is meant. How can one consider the Constitution to be a living document and take that oath? For the intent of the writers thereof is not subject to the readers interpretation. In this primary season, it might be very helpful to ask each and every candidate to express their opinion on the solemnity of the oath of office that they would take, and to expound on their opinion for it is not a question that can be answered in only a few sentences.

1962...Redux

The following is a short story that I wrote quite a few years ago and used it for my August 22, 2009 blog. I titled it 1962 for that was a time when high school lettered sweaters were a treasured item.

Tommy Wilson walked  in, beat and worn out, to the apartment where he and his mother lived. She had been holding dinner off until 7 o'clock every night so that Tommy could go to football practice and then to Spinoza's Market to work for a few hours after practice every day.

Tommy's mother: "Welcome home Johnny U!"
Tommy: "I'm on special teams mom. Johnny Unitas is a quarterback."
Tommy's mother: "Oh. Excuse me! Any new bruises today?"
Tommy: "Yeah. My right shin is really bruised."

Tommy was a senior at Catowaga High School in Buffalo, New York and going out for football for the very first time, for he was on a mission. You see, Tommy was in love with Mary Burns. Mary's family had moved to Buffalo the year before from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her father was an airline pilot and this is where the job was. Tommy and his mom did not have a lot of money. He would have wanted to buy a ring or a necklace that he could give to Mary so that everyone would know that Mary was his girl but what he finally decided on was going to take a lot of effort. He wanted to make the football team and earn a varsity letter, put it on a sweater, and give it to Mary. All the guys who had lettered had given the lettered sweaters to their girlfriends. One problem that Tommy had was that he had never played football before. You had to get into ten quarters to earn a varsity letter. After a week of practice the coach had told Tommy that the only way he would ever get into a game would be on the kickoff team, and that... only if he could learn to tackle. Tommy had given more effort than anyone on the team, flying down the field and literally throwing his body at charging players. Working at Spinoza's Market would provide him enough money to give some to his mom and also buy the wool sweater for $37.50. That was the plan anyway.

Mary: "Tommy, I'm really worried about you. You get hurt almost every practice and you work so hard afterwards at Spinoza's. Are you sure that you really want to do this? You know that football doesn't mean anything to me."
Tommy: "Mary, I have to do this. Football will be over in December and then I can slow down."

He had not told Mary about the plan or the importance of others knowing that she was his girl. Mary was a Christian girl from the south who always talked about the Lord. He never talked this way about God and didn't know anyone else who did.

Mary: "Tommy. The Bible says that one has to be born again. You should think about this and try to understand what it means."
Tommy: "Mary. I believe in God. I may not be perfect but who is," and then sheepishly added "except maybe you,"
Mary: "You know that I'm not perfect Tommy. Actually I'm far from it since I know the Lord and still cannot live as I should!"
Tommy: "Well you seem pretty close to perfect...in everything...to me Mary."

Tommy's coach was not particularly happy that He expected to win a letter. This was only his second year with the Chargers and he was going to succeed and make coaching his profession. Catawaga had never had a winning football season. They were 0 and 10 the year before Coach Thomas came and 4 and 6 his first year as coach. "Come hell or high water," as the coach would say, they were going to have a winning season this year and that meant 6 wins. The assistant coach, Coach Offen, was a football coach second and a history teacher first. He admired the spunk of this young light-weight senior who for some reason just had to win a varsity letter. His efforts probably helped influence Coach Thomas from cutting Tommy.

Coach Offen: "Are you alright Wilson?"
Tommy: "Yeah coach. I think I forgot to hit with my shoulder instead of my head."
Coach Offen: "Sit down for a while Tommy."
Tommy: "Do I have to coach? I feel OK."

Coach Thomas came over as Tommy headed for the bench.

Coach Thomas: "That kids going to kill himself and get us all in trouble."
Coach Offen: "I'll keep an eye on him Mike. He'll be alright."

Tommy liked to take Mary to this new hamburger joint called McDonald's. It was only 19 cents for a burger and that was all that he could afford on his budget. Mary carried a little Bible with her at all times and liked to sneak in about ten minutes of scripture reading to him every time they were together. Tommy was glad they didn't live in the South for they took religion all too seriously. The first game was the next day and Tommy didn't know if he would get in for the coach gave no clues. The game started and he wasn't on the field for the opening kickoff, nor for the two others in the first half. Catawaga was winning 21 nothing when they took the field in the second half. Coach Thomas barked out orders and yelled Tommy's name for the kickoff without even looking at him. Tommy's first experience in a football game was not all that encouraging. He ran down the field and was belted by someone twice his size...but he had one quarter in for his letter. He wasn't in the game for the fourth quarter. The next week was one of gruelling practices. Tommy hit every opposite colored practice jersey that he had a chance to. Coach Offen patted him on the back but Coach Thomas never acknowledged him. The Chargers were 1 and 0 going into the second game. Again Tommy didn't play in the first half but his name was called for the kickoff in the second half. He flew down the field and hit the first jersey he came to who fell back into the ball carrier enabling his teammates to reach the runner and bring him down. Tommy had actually contributed! He had another chance in the fourth quarter. The kick was real short, someone in the middle had picked up the ball and Tommy had a chance to hit a ball carrier for the first time. Just as he was about to lower his head for the tackle, he was blocked hard and thought that he heard his finger snap. The trainer wrapped it up and later the doctor told him that it was separated and it would keep him out of football for three weeks at least. Tommy now had three quarters of the ten that he needed but the season would be half over when he would be able to play again. The Chargers were 3 and 2 so Coach Thomas was not on the warpath as he had been in the past. The 6th game saw Tommy only get in once in the fourth quarter but he now had four quarters of game play with four games left.

Mary: "Tommy, you played really well last night. You hit that big number 70 real hard!"
Tommy: "But I didn't move him Mary. I can't expect to earn a letter if I can't help the team ."
Mary: "Is that what this is all about...a letter? Why is it so important?"
Tommy: "Well...uh...I just have to win a varsity letter in high school, that's all."

Tommy had a fairly good week of practice but didn't get into the 7th game at all and the team lost. The team was now 4 and 3 and Coach Thomas hardly even practiced Tommy. Tommy thought that he heard Coach Offen mention Tommy's name to Coach Thomas. He couldn't hear what was being said but neither one of them looked very happy. Game 8 went well from the start and the Chargers were up 30 to 0 at the half. There were 10 quarters left and Tommy needed to get into 6 of them. It seemed impossible but Tommy kept giving everything that he had. He was in on the kickoff beginning the second half and Coach Offen slapped him on the back with encouragement. Tommy ran hard down the field and the runner advanced about 20 yards and found himself running straight at Tommy who lowered his head and dove for his legs. The runner went down and Tommy's teammates were slapping Tommy on the helmet but he hurt his finger again and didn't tell anyone. The Chargers put their third string in for the fourth quarter and did not score at all so their was no chance for Tommy to get in. The next week Tommy got in on the opening kickoff but the team was down 28 to 0 at the half and that was it for Tommy. There was now one game left and Tommy needed to get in all four quarters. His finger hurt all week but Tommy hit everything in sight in practice. He was actually learning the game of football with one game left in his career. The team now had 5 wins and 4 losses and needed to win the last game for Coach Thomas to have his winning season. Tommy thought it impossible to get in for all four quarters but Coach Offen told him just to make the plays and it will turn out. It seemed as if Coach Offen had talked to Coach Thomas or something. Tommy was in on the first kickoff and hit a blocker knocking him down. The runner came next and Tommy latched onto his legs for the tackle. It was a high scoring game for three quarters while Tommy was in on every kickoff and made three tackles. Catawaga was losing 28 to 27 in the last quarter of the season and the Chargers could not move the ball nor could the other team. Time was running out on his plan. Five minutes were left in the game, then 4, 3, 2. Waltersville, their main rival, had the ball on their own 10 yard line with a one point lead and only 15 seconds left in the game. Tommy had tears in his eyes. He looked up in the stands and saw Mary looking down at him. She pointed to the sky and Tommy knew what she meant...the Lord was more important than football. Tommy began to feel guilty because his team was about to lose, his coach was not going to reach his goal, but he only cared about himself. The game was just about over when Coach Thomas yelled out Tommy's name. Tommy jumped up and looked at him. The coach told him to go in for Davis in the defensive backfield. Tommy had only played that position in practice, more of a body needed than anything else. He started running out on the field and everyone was yelling at him that he forgot his helmet. He reached the defensive huddle and now had his ten quarters. Why would Coach Thomas do this, especially as they were about to lose? His teammates were oblivious to this. They only had one more play on their mind. The quarterback took the snap and handed off to the fullback who broke through the line and came right at Tommy. Tommy ran straight at him and hit him as hard as he ever hit anyone. Tommy was knocked on his back but heard shouts. He had caused a fumble and everyone was running after the ball. One guy fell on it only to have it squirt out towards Tommy. There was no time to think about anything. He picked it up and ran towards the goal. He was hit short of it but before he fell was hit from behind by a teammate and then another. He felt his feet hit the ground and pushed one more time in the scrum with players in front but more in back. He fell but held onto the ball and could hear yells. What had happened? The referee was pulling players off until he saw Tommy and raised his arms signalling a touchdown. Everyone was pulling at him, slapping him, yelling at him. He had scored the winning touchdown. The Chargers beat their rival and finished the season at 6 wins and 4 losses. Tommy was in a bit of shock. As he walked back towards the sideline he saw Coaches Thomas and Offen talking. Coach Thomas was smiling and shaking his head up and down.

Mary: "Tommy you were unbelievable. You were the hero...and now you'll get your letter."
Tommy: "Mary. I'll tell you later just why I had to have that letter."

Two weeks later was the football banquet where the varsity letters would be given out. Everyone was given two tickets to the dinner to give to their parents. Friends could buy their own. Tommy's mother and Mary would be at his table. The Chargers colors were white and red so Tommy had bought a white wool sweater at Anderson's Department Store and was ready to sew the red letter on the day after the banquet. Tommy's mom had picked up Mary in their 1957 Ford Fairlane and met Tommy at the banquet, for he had gone early for instructions on the ceremony. Tommy was the only senior to be given a letter for the first time. Coach Thomas said a few words about every player that came up to the podium. When he came to Tommy he had this to say:

      "Quite frankly, I never expected Tommy Wilson to earn this letter. It is near impossible to earn a varsity letter as a senior without ever having played a down of organized football. In fact, and I'm ashamed to admit it, I was more than a little bit annoyed by his determination, but Coach Offen had faith in Tommy's abilities...abilities that I did not see. He nearly twisted my arm to get Tommy in all four quarters of that last game. Come on up for your letter Tommy. You deserved it as much as anyone on this team."

Tommy was red faced and looked to Coach Offen and smiled as he returned to his table. He gave his varsity letter to his mom and held Mary's hand tight.

Mary: "Well Tommy, I'm so proud of you and now you have that letter that you wanted so much!"
Tommy: "Mary, I never told you why I wanted this letter so bad. All the other guys have something to give to their girls to show everyone that they are their girlfriends. They can afford nice rings and have cars to drive them around in. They take them to the prom and I can't afford that. I worked for that varsity letter to put on a sweater and ask you if you would wear it for the rest of the year. I would be so proud to see you in it, knowing that you are showing everyone that we love each other."
Mary: "Tommy...I had no idea that you felt this way! I...I'm in shock...and I...I have to tell you what is going through my mind right now. Tommy, everyone will one day stand before God after a lifetime of sin, and He will look at them to see if they belong to His Son Jesus. And do you know how He will know? All of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ...and Him alone to save them...will be dressed in white....the Righteousness of Christ. He will give them white robes to show that they are His! The Father will only see what Jesus has done! That's why Jesus came here...to live the perfect life that we cannot live...and to die for our sins...and be resurrected for our redemption as His children! Tommy. If we trust in anything of ourselves we are pulling back that robe of righteousness revealing our sin. God may have given you this determination to win a varsity letter and put it on a sweater just to show you this! When we are born again we see these things Tommy."

Tommy couldn't say a word. The Mary that he loved so much was the Mary that loved Jesus so much. He sometimes felt jealous over this but how wrong he had been! For the very first time he understood what Mary had been trying to tell him. He felt that God must love him for showing him this. He had doubted this before because he had grown up without a father. Tommy felt tears forming in his eyes and turned his head. His mother was just returning to her seat. She had his sweater in her hand and the red varsity letter "C" was sown on. She had secretly brought the sweater with her and returned to her car to sew on the letter. Tommy looked lovingly into his mother's eyes, took the sweater and turned back to Mary. She had stood up and took off the vest that she was wearing. Tommy offered her the sweater and she carefully put it on and sat down.

Mary: "Thank you Tommy."
Tommy looked at her with wet eyes and said:
 "Maybe we can both put on something white tonight with the letter "C" on it?"

They held hands as the principle turned on the microphone again and said:
    "Well the Supreme Court recently ruled that God cannot come into our schools anymore. Maybe someday we will have to comply....but not tonight! Heavenly Father. Thank you for this night, and for the food we are about to receive..."

The Fruit Of Her Hands

I'd like to write a little bit about my wife here. I'm sure you would agree that it would take a special person to put up with me. The topics of this blog are basically my everyday conversation. Well, it's at least the thoughts while the conversation is going on. This may explain some of the things that I do...this for example: Last week I had an eye doctors appointment after work. Now I always wear a turtle-neck piece, a dickie, under my shirt...winter or summer. I dressed quickly to get to my appointment and pick up my new glasses. I picked a very wide frame and wondered if it might be too wide for as I tried the glasses on everyone seemed to be looking at them. When I got home my wife said "I hope you didn't go to the optometrists like that?"  Actually I'm used to this kind of comment from her. I started checking my clothes. The back of the dickie was hanging out. I demonstrated it for the guys at work the next day and one shouted "Superman!." My wife has a profession while I have a job. She has served our community and supervised employees for 35 years now. She is the best at it in my opinion and I think that opinion is shared by many others. Quite a few young women worked for her over the years and went on to the same profession, a testament I think about how she takes pride in her work and that that desire to serve the community is taken up by others because of it. She makes a little bit less than I do in my blue-collar job but has enormous responsibilities. It's a work of love with no union necessary for self-respect or to tempt one to put money before the commitment. She never missed a beat in raising our son. She is always thoughtful to others and is tearful often as elderly friends and patrons, people of the community, pass away. She's the financial manager of the house with one exception for I'm extremely conservative on 401K investments because of my greatly diminished hope for a secure future for this beloved country of ours. We opened a bookstore once and she was there for me 100% even though she didn't think that it was the best idea. I don't even want to imagine what our financial situation would be like if I had to pay the bills every month. The first years were not easy. People want miracles as proof that there is a God but oftentimes the miracle is that God had a shepherds hook pulling us in and often a rod when we act up. He brought two lost people together and I will forever be thankful!

Rear-View Mirror

Essentially, my only advertising for this blog is the bumper sticker on my car. I change the message with each blog in such a way that a driver behind me at a traffic light might just be inquisitive enough to visit the site. I'll often look in the rear-view mirror and see a man alone in the car, or a woman, or a couple, and lift up a prayer for them. I have appealed often in this blog to the concept of a father's love for his children. The average man is willing to take the chance of staying away from God. He has just enough stubborn determination to stay with the crowd for a long time but I want him to realize something, that he is applying this decision of his to his children also. "Oh, they can make up their own mind later on in life," he might say, but they will most likely make the same decision based on the pattern they saw in the father they loved. So, speaking here to these men....How much work have you put into this question of God and man? Might I offer a few possible answers.... You gave it some thought on an occasion or two and were not convinced.... You were dragged to church when you were young so you know what it's all about....or, Carl Sagan didn't buy it...and he was very intelligent. Maybe you are more of a philosopher...if there is a God why is there so much suffering, or... I'm not that bad of a person. I'm not concerned here with trying to answer these questions but rather in saying to you That's it? You are consigning your children to a future of not knowing Jesus because of your own limited experiences or because you stumbled over some questions that multitudes of Christians have trusted God with and thanked Him for ever since? Let me take a real leap here and assume that someone reading this might actually consider my thesis, that although they are not being drawn to Jesus Christ, they love their children more than their own life. What are they to do? The first thing is to pray with your children...before meals and at bedtime. How hard is this guys? They will never...ever...forget this! Second...put a Bible, God's word to us, on the coffee table and pick it up to read on occasion for them to see. Third...humble yourself before God and admit that praying with your children and picking up a Bible are a mere pittance of what a father should do but plead that God might take that morsel and protect them through it.  Another Christian reading this might wonder what kind of advice I'm giving? Twenty-five years ago or so, on one of our Pittsburgh rivers, there was a boating accident with a father and small child. The father couldn't swim and struggled as he held his child's head above the water. The child survived but the father drowned. That's what kind of advice this is. Hold your child's head above the water for you love them more than your own life. You might be surprised at what may happen for you indeed may be saying "I am not worthy... but have mercy on my child!" Your response here may turn out not to be your own for many have come to Christ in similar ways as this. We thought that we were making an insignificant step but God had initiated it. We didn't realize this until later. There is an anecdote from film noir that I would like to give here. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien starred in Angels With Dirty Faces. Here's the plot; Cagney was a gangster whose bravado earned the adoration of the young boys in his neighborhood. He eventually killed a police officer and was sentenced to death in the electric chair. Pat O'Brien was a Catholic priest who walked that last mile with him. Cagney was tough. He was going to spit in their faces before they applied the juice. O'Brien talked to him the whole way of how those boys were going to follow in his footsteps...they would end up like him. His defiance, especially in death, would only encourage them more. Cagney struggled...at first with anger, but upon being led into the chair he cried like a baby that he didn't want to die. They had to forcibly strap him into the chair. Only the priest knew the reason why this tough guy turned yellow. The picture ended as the youths lost the image of their hoodlum hero and went back to being young boys. Cagney's character was going to the chair but you can still move about. Take your child by the hand to Christ and see how He may respond...even with you.

Son...I Failed To Try?

The following blog is from this past July 14th. Yogi Berra once said "Even Napoleon had his Watergate." Lord Acton's most famous quote is "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely," and no where is that more evidenced than in the Obama administration. After his term is over, books will be written by insiders, others will feel free to speak and the media's hedge of protection will wither. All of America will find out what many already know, that the American electorate had been had in 2008, that there was no real concern for the poor, minorities or the immigrant. A prosperous America was never the goal. It was all about ideology and Marxist ideology at that. I understand today more than ever before just how great nations fell, how their defenses vanished and the values that gave them strength eroded. I didn't realize how much I loved our country until I began to see it crumble. I never fully appreciated those who sacrificed for it until I realized just what they worked, strove and fought for.

July 14, 2011
It is my opinion that before this is all over, and by that I mean the Barack Obama era of either a four or eight year period, he may flee this country. Whether indictments will be part of it or not I don't know but after Americans become aware of the full extent of what this president has done to our nation, to our national and domestic security, of his real intent as opposed to the fictitious constitutional scholar on the covers of Time and Newsweek throughout 2008, and without the media protection that is already starting to crack, he will eventually, more likely seek the approval of those outside the country who, although not totally in sync with his anti-colonial spirit of redistribution of wealth, appreciate his larger vision of a...smaller America and his strong case ...for a weak America. If the media does not turn its concern to its own nation and its own families, as opposed to its own liberal reputation in its own mind, then Barack Obama may indeed sneak into another term. He indeed has his strongholds that will continue to give support, those primarily being the special interest groups who have profited well from the liberal entitlement party. There is really no love, either way, between the man and these groups for it is a simple contract where one party promises a remuneration for the other party's support and that second party will essentially sue, by threatening to withhold that support, if the promises are not kept. The motivations are power...and greed. A second support group is more international and involves the many who have great wealth. These elites will support either a Democrat or Republican who permits them to remain the dominant party in setting course for the world's economies. These two forces alone cannot keep Barack Obama in power nor  replace him with another choice without either significant support from mainstream America or a division in traditional America that would essentially destroy the power of their block, and that is where the media comes in. They are a secularist faction that does not necessarily receive any monetary remuneration nor does it hold passionately to any particular economic or political philosophy. The only threat to the world that they have created on the pages of their print media and screens of the broadcast media is religion, and even there it is not Islam, liberal Christianity or Judaism but Biblical Christianity. Having said this...having given these purely personal opinions, I need to reiterate as I have done consistently in this blog that any of our schemes and all of our schemes, whether they be noble or ignoble, sound or unsound, cleverly devised and painstakingly developed or simply mob induced, will indeed either fail or succeed but not without God's staying hand or lifted hand. We cannot go one way or the other apart from His permission which will ultimately lead to His glory and the benefit of those who trust in Him. We do have a cause, that being a future for us and our children in a nation that insures freedom and liberty, and acknowledges that God is not only the source of all blessings but the author of all truth. The hard reality is that that may not be what's in store for our children. They may look at us one day and inquire as to what we did in the final days of the constitutional republic of the United States of America. Our answer will have to be either we tried and failed to protect that heritage, or we failed to try. Returning to that first political block in this whole equation, mainstream America, it will either wake up, as there are signs of, or return to a deep sleep, either of which will be as God sees fit to permit, for His ultimate purposes and to His everlasting glory

"Lawfare"...What Is It?

Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, in a blurb on the back of John Fonte's new book Sovereignty Or Submission, Will Americans Rule Themselves Or Be Ruled By Others, begins with these words "John Fonte accurately identifies the coalitions of institutions, interests and individuals that are promoting global governance..." John O'Sullivan, Vice President and Executive Editor of Radio Free Europe, had these words to say in his introduction to the book, "Global governance...seeks to take ultimate political power from parliaments and congresses accountable to national electorates in sovereign states, and to invest it in courts, bureaucracies, NGOs and various transnational bodies." This is reality but the threat is concealed in the roar from stadiums and the mesmerizing effect from the Oprah and Facebook mentality that rules the American mind today. I have argued on many occasions in this blog that the elites of this world have grandiose plans for an entirely new world but that those stubborn and religious American people fight them every step of the way. Barack Obama was a major crack in our defense and euphoria reigned in many countries but his utter incompetence and the American people's harsh awakening to it is forcing them to ramp up the flip side of their assault on the sovereign state. What kind of arguments do these elites make? One given in the book is "sovereignty must be redefined as something shared or pooled," a ridiculously illogical, nonsense statement but one that the postmodern mind listens to and says.... whatever. The Transnational according to Fonte, is one who seeks "legal action and authority beyond national laws, constitutions and officials." Does this make your blood boil? It should for they are saying that they will make the rules and we will be submissive. Who are the players? NGOs are a big one. They are the "nongovernmental organizations" who we hear so much about in the news and automatically accept as if they just want to give us advice and nothing more. Fonte lists a number of them throughout the book. Some of which are: Human Rights Watch,  the National Council of Churches, the ACLU, La Raza, Amnesty International, the Ford...MacArthur and Rockefeller foundations. The next time you watch a program on PBS promoting international issues that you disagree with, check the credits at the end to see who sponsored it and you will probably find an NGO. How does this statement sound to you, "It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order..." This came from "the most trusted man in America"....Walter Cronkite. John Fonte gives the historical and philosophical background of this argument for a world government along with what our nations founders had to say in response to such suggestions. Those founders used the concept of law as it appears in the Bible and that that respected, proven, concept is today being torn asunder on the international stage. Every one of us is a philosopher but most of us have no idea where that philosophy came from or even that it has existed and was argued over from time immemorial. Fonte's book is a needed introduction into philosophy and the American mind. Alexis de Tocqueville's name comes up often in books of this nature. Yes, our favorable geography helps keep us together as a republic as well as our political institutions but de Tocqueville summarized our strength this way "I would say that physical causes contribute less than laws, and laws less than mores." These last two are being systematically eroded every day in our nation. Fonte states that the Founders "promoted education to help develop the mores required to sustain a free society." He spends a good bit of time on the rule of law and a new concept known as "lawfare" or the "use or misuse of law- litigation for harassment, propaganda, or ideological purposes-to achieve strategic, political, or military objectives." Fonte's book is a primer on Europe and what is going on there. I have dozens of books sitting on my shelves where a blurb on the back might say something like "every American must read this book," and many do but we are losing this battle. How does the saying go...You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink? The 127th Psalm begins. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." Ultimately, He will either open our eyes or we will no more be a sovereign nation. This book would certainly be a help to anyone but after reading even the few morsels given here, a simple bowing of the head and asking God to have mercy upon us is what we really need.

Post Tenebras Lux

How does one go about getting the attention of the average American on issues such as appear in this blog? Well, let's start to answer that by identifying those issues. On July the 4th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed and so began the Great American Experiment. Two-hundred and thirty five years later a new declaration is being signed onto, one that voids the first. American military superiority has peaked as we are told that only small regional wars might lie ahead. Our American education system is no longer what it was and is too often merely a battleground for an ideological paradigm shift on the lower end and breeding grounds for the globalist and transnationalist on the higher end. The majority of the American church is inflicted with one of three illnesses: total liberal heresy in denial of the gospel, off on tangents and doctrinal fads that at the very least make the true proclamation of the gospel ineffective, or so watered-down in identity and doctrine as to make it a place where almost anyone in this nation can saunter in and have no objections, feel no guilt or have no compulsion to respond to anything coming out of the pulpit. Homosexuality directly challenges God on television, philosophy in film, and greed in business. Should a child survive the pre-born sacrifice of abortion, he or she must navigate a world increasingly at enmity with God. The coup de' gras of the socialist/Marxist/globalist assault on America has been in the concept of "law." That which has kept us from chaos is too often in the hands of those who do not revere it. The Robert Borks are being replaced by the Elena Kagans. These are some of the issues, now how does one go about getting people's attention? Well, there's good and bad news here. Let me start with the bad news; one cannot get their attention. In fairness to them, they would have to sneeze while changing radio stations, and sneeze just as the dial was positioned on talk radio, inadvertently giving them the opportunity to hear some morsel of legitimate news, information and warning; and even then, would they listen? The original condition of every man, women and child on this earth is that of autonomy and self-exaltation, and no one was once more cemented into it than I. The good news? Nations rise and nations fall according to God's will! We are in darkness today in the United States of America but surely the Reformation mottos of Post Tenebras Lux (after darkness, light) and Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be glory) offer us hope in remembrance of those who have gone before us. If this blog informs anyone in a way which causes them to inquire into their fallen condition and then seek God's mercy it will be entirely His doing, according to His will and to His glory alone. If it wouldn't, then I consider it a hidden blessing not to have been taken seriously.

Over these past three years I have occasionally copied, word for word, prayers out of a book of Puritan prayers called Valley Of Vision which was edited by Arthur Bennett. It's been a blessing to the church especially considering its content, Puritan prayers, in this shallow age. Here is another offering from that book that I hope you will purchase for your own edification, for although it has daily humbled me it has also given me great hope in the One who first moved its authors:

Lord God Almighty,

I asked not to be enrolled amongst the earthly
great and rich,
but to be numbered with the spiritually blessed.
Make it my present, supreme, persevering concern
to obtain those blessings which are
spiritual in their nature,
eternal in their continuance,
satisfying in their possession.
Preserve me from a false estimate of the whole
or a part of my character;
May I pay regard to
my principles as well as my conduct,
my motives as well as my actions.
Help me
Never to mistake the excitement of my passions
for the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
never to judge my religion by occasional
impressions and impulses, but by my
constant and prevailing disposition.
May my heart be right with thee,
and my life as becometh the gospel.
May I maintain a supreme regard to another
and better world,
and feel and confess myself a stranger
and a pilgrim here.
Afford me all the direction, defense, support,
and consolation my journey hence requires,
and grant me a mind stayed upon thee.
Give me large abundance of the supply of
the Spirit of Jesus,
that I may be prepared for every duty,
love thee in all my mercies,
submit to thee in every trial,
trust thee when walking in darkness,
have peace in thee amidst life's changes.
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief
and uncertainties.

Gird Your Loins

So what gives here? I tuned into the Sean Hannity radio program on the way home from work today and he was in the middle of an interview. I didn't immediately recognize the voice of who he was talking to. The topics were Congress, the economy and Iran and the speaker spoke intelligently with calm assurance. Could this be Rick Perry I wondered, the same man who answered questions in the most recent debate as if every word out of his mouth costs $10,000 so he was going to cram as many talking points in as possible? Some might say that this change that I perceived would be due to a friendly interviewer and I'm sure that there would be truth in that but the opposite of a friendly interviewer is not necessarily a neutral, albeit hard, interviewer, for what these Republican candidates faced were questions from men whose sole intent was to embarrass the candidate in some way, shape or form. How absurd is this whole campaign so far! We have an incumbent president who without the benefit of Marxists and globalists who both mentored and used him his entire adult life would not be qualified to head a company of 100 people let alone the United States of America.  None of this is ever remotely researched or questioned by a grotesquely obscurantist liberal media. Stop the presses! As I'm writing this, Rick Perry is being interviewed again, this time by Roger Hedgecock on XM Radio. Again he sounds like a rational, intelligent American!  Here is the conundrum. How do you approach an American public whose thinking capacity has been dumbed down to such an extent that it cannot discern good from evil, the genuine from the counterfeit. Can the American man remodel his house? You betcha. Can he work in industry or business? You betcha. Can he listen to a politician and navigate the shoals of spin meant to lead him as if he had a ring in his nose? Not on your life. Can the American woman enter the workplace and perform as well as the men. Absolutely. Can she tune into some daytime television talk show and carry on the conversation on any number of complex topics later on with friends? Yes. Can she watch the CBS Evening News and discern any bias at all in a broadcast that should have the word Democrat in the title? Not on your life. Can the college student earn multiple degrees? Certainly. Can he/she identify the campus predator seeking legions of students solely for his ulterior motives? It's not likely.  The political gurus know this. The Axelrods have it very easy for all they have to do is throw money and promises around and the carp will come to the surface with open mouths. The Karl Roves have to follow a different plan. Their intent is to latch on to a relatively small number of hot button issues that the conservative can chant. Giggles, cheers and a few boos were from the audience in the debate that I watched that was more like a Miss America contest than eight candidates vying to take the helm of a ship of state already listing in a tempest in uncharted waters. We are living in a time where the clarion call should be "all hands on deck" and "man your battle stations," but we can't tear ourselves away from the dayroom and watching grown men, making millions of dollars, as they play with balls of various sizes and shapes. The typical liberal American is in far worse shape than the conservative for he has been duped by both Marxists and globalists and therefore doesn't really espouse anything, rather he is identified in what opposes. There is a shakedown in process and everything that the liberal claims to love is being taken away, but to pay attention to the warnings would lead to a humbling before Almighty God and this is not acceptable. The conservative thinks that a republican White House and Congress will solve the problem. It won't. We are too far gone. This blog won't convince enough people to fill a house. The only hope in my efforts or even in the efforts of legitimate columnists such as Thomas Sowell, Michele Malkin, Pat Buchanan and many others would be in retrospect, something to look back upon as chaos envelops us, something to research as to why disaster courted us and we acquiesced so easily. Gird your loins folks for unless we humble ourselves before our Creator, Brunhilde will take the stage with her final aria.....and the fat lady will sing.

Debate Coverage...Sort Of

Well, I tuned in to the debate tonight, the first time I have done so, and...well the following might not be exactly verbatim but it's kind of how I saw it:

Pelley:       Governor Perry. What would you do if a nuclear weapon came up missing in Pakistan?
Perry:        Let me just say that we are winning in Afghanistan.
Pelley:       That was the previous question to Governor Romney.
Perry:        Oh...I wouldn't give a penny to Red China.
Pelley:       That was two questions ago. Time is up. Thank you Governor.
Garrett:     Congressman Paul. How would you deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
Paul:          Have we ever tried sending him flowers?
Santorum:  Excuse me. Excuse me!  I just want to say that I totally disagree with Congressman Paul.
Garrett:     Governor Huntsman: Would it ever be the right thing to do to bomb Iran?
Huntsman: You know, I sat next to a sailor on the flight in and we have the finest navy in the world.
Garrett:      Oookaaay. And what about Iran?
Huntsman:  What about it?
Garrett:      Would it ever be the right thing to do to bomb Iran?
Huntsman:  Let me just say that I used to live in a shack in Iran... I know Iran.
Garrett:      And...?
Huntsman:  And what?
Pelley:        Speaker Gingrich. Would you ever use the fiendish, horrid, un-American torture of waterboarding?
Gingrich:     Waterboarding isn't torture.
Pelley:         Yes it is! Yes it is! Yes it is!!!
Garrett:       Governor Romney. You're really a handsome man.
Romney:     Thank you and I sincerely hope that Putin doesn't think that I'm just another pretty face.
Pelley:         Mr. Cain. What hands-on experience do you have with nuclear weaponry?
Cain:           Hands-on.....as the CEO of Godfather's Pizza? None.
Pelley:         Thank-you sir.
Pelley:         Congresswoman Bachmann: I notice that you have your hair pinned back tonight. Have you ever
                   used a washer board while doing your laundry?
Bachmann:   Excuse me!
Pelley:         Thank you Congresswoman.
Bachmann:  Excuse me again. I have sixty seconds to talk!
Pelley:         That was sixty seconds.
Bachmann:  Two words?  Sixty seconds?
Pelley:         We're playing by the rules tonight shorty!
Garrett:        Speaker Gingrich. Some people say that you will say anything conservatives want to hear?
Gingrich:      I'd bomb Iran, stop abortion, nominate Joe the Plumber for the Supreme Court and add Ronald
                   Reagan's name to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Garrett:       Thank-you sir.
Santorum:    Hey, Hey, Hey. What about me over here?
Pelley:         Senator Santorum. How would you handle the situation in Syria?
Santorum:   Well, I would..
Pelley:         Thank you Senator. Times up. Governor Romney. Who is going to be your Vice President?
Cain:           What kind of question is that?
Pelley:         I'll rephrase it. Governor Romney. Is your Vice President on the stage tonight?
Romney:      Let me just say that I'd be honored to have any of the 300 millions Americans as my V.P..
Huntsman:   Hey! I'm down here in Siberia you know!
Perry:          Did I ever tell you the one about the elephant who forgot where he put his trunk?
Pelley:         That's all the time we have for tonight. Thank you gentleman, shorty...and the black guy to the left of
                   Presi...I mean Governor Romney.

The most difficult thing about watching this was in seeing South Carolina Senator Jim Demint watching from the audience.

What Seest In Me Lord?

What seest in me Lord,
what makest Thou stay thy hand,
why dost thou give Thy ear to a clanging symbol,
why give light to a worm?

My years pass ere so quickly
and I will never be able to pay,
for even a day in the joy in knowing you,
for a moment of the touch of your hand.

Your blessings have covered me as a flood
and I drown in your mercy,
seeing my life before me
only to be told to turn my gaze towards Thee.

"All of grace" he said
and I understood,
and the first days...wonderful as they were,
are eclipsed.

You made me meek
when I desired power,
and humbled me,
wherein is Thy given strength.

Wisdom is thy breath
and fellowship thy gift,
for souls regenerated
is our meat and drink.

Those gone before,
the memory of whom I treasure,
call out to me
"press on."

Those coming alongside, youthful and budding,
are but reflections of my beginning.
Nurture them through my failings and clip the wings
that were made, not to fly, but cover their faces in your presence.

This world waits for your return,
your creatures for your rule.
Surely you look to that day also.
Come Lord Jesus!

Hot Buttons...Redux

According to the "statistics" on this website, a blog that I wrote on July 10th of last year has been the most often visited. I thought that I would republish it for it's even more pertinent and prescient today than it was then!

Viewing on an iPhone is a little better on "web version."

Hot Buttons:

Joey:               Hey Gramps!
Gramps:          Hi Joey. And for what reason do I have for this pleasure?
Joey:               I was wondering if you would do me a favor and help with a school project?
Gramps:          Sure. What is it?
Joey:               Well, it's for my Civics class. Mr. Horton's assignment is to ask three people their opinions on
                       who was America's best President and who was the worst. They have to be from three
                       different age groups, for instance I can have one young, one middle age and one elderly.
Gramps:          I'm in. Who are you getting for the young person and the elderly person?
Joey:               Uh....Well I asked Uncle Tim...and I asked Jimmy Jones who graduated a few years ago.
Gramps:          Hmmmmm. So that makes me...the...uh...el..derly?
Joey:               Well, yeah...elderly or senior citizen I guess.
Gramps:          Joey. I'm 59 and 3/4 years old. Did you know that Gordie Howe played professional hockey
                       until he was 51 years old?
Joey:               Gordie who?
Gramps:          Not "who," Howe.
Joey:               How what?
Gramps:          Never mind.
Joey:               Wow! you knew a lot about sports when you were young.
Gramps:          So do you just want me to name the Presidents?
Joey:               Well, you're supposed to give your thoughts on why you chose them.
Gramps:          That's a cinch....what do you mean "when I was young?" Did you know that Tom Watson, he's
                       five months older than me by the way, led most of the way in last year's U. S. Open?
Joey:               Was that the "Senior" league?
Gramps:          No that wasn't the Seeenior league! Well, hey anyway, if there there's things I got to give, it's
                       opinions, opinions and opinions.
Joey:               Great. I've got a recorder here so you can just talk and I'll write down your answers later.
Gramps:          OK, here we go. By the way. Did you know that Grandma Moses didn't start painting until
                       she was  in her 70s? That's 7...zero...70s!
Joey:               Was she my great-grandma?
Gramps:          No. Never mind. You know, I was thinking. The name "Gramps" makes one sound old....
                       now you can't really call me Wilbur?
Joey:               Did you have a nickname when you were...uh...real... real young?
Gramps:          Well, yeah. They called me "bolthead" because I liked to fix cars so much.
Joey:               Bolt......head?
Gramps           Not, bolt......head, Bolthead. The girls loved it!
Joey:               So you want me to call you Grandpa Bolthead?
Gramps:          Let's just forget it. Back to this assignment...take a seat and fasten your seat belt for you
                       hit on two hot buttons today.
Joey:               Hey, you got a lot of "hot buttons." How about if I call you "Hot Buttons?"
Gramps:          Hot Buttons huh? Yeah, that'll work.
Joey:               Did my dad have a nickname when he was young?
Hot Buttons:   Yes he did but I think that he should be the one who tells you...if he wants to. OK, here we
                      go...cough, cough...ah-hem! I've actually thought about this before. My vote for the greatest
                      President was the Gipper.
Joey:              The what?
Hot buttons:   The Gipper!. You mean that you didn't know that Ronald Reagan's nickname was "the Gipper?"
                      Well let me tell you something else that you may not know. Reagan was a couple of weeks
                      short of 70 years old, that's 7...zero...70, when he was inaugurated our 40th president. Anyway
                      I look at three areas when trying to make a choice like this. How did the economy do during his
                      his presidency, how about our foreign policy and national defense...and was the American public
                      changed in any way while he was in office? On the economy...America prospered, primarily due
                      to tax cuts for the American people, after the malaise of the Carter Administration. Do you know
                      what "malaise" means?
Joey:              No!
Hot Buttons:   Neither do I but put it in anyway...it sounds good. Anyway, Reagan strengthened our military,
                      that and our growth was a death knell for the Soviet Union. As for the "spirit" of Americans...
                      his words, always beautiful and profound... inspired, they motivated, they instilled a confidence in
                      in the people, they melted even his strongest detractors. He was the quintessential example of
                      leadership. Do you know what "quintessential" means?
Joey:              Yeah.
Hot Buttons:   Good. Tell me later. So that's my choice for our greatest President. As for the worst? Joey... this is
                      sad in talking about for it's our current President. I knew from the beginning that I disagreed with
                      his policies but I wasn't prepared for what transpired, and it continues almost every day. The
                      bailouts, admittedly started by his predecessor, and the stimulus packages that put us so deeply
                      in debt that we will never overcome this burden, the attack on "business" in general that appears
                      to come from deep inward hostility towards America's worldwide economic prowess, and
                      the taxation that will make "all" Americans totally dependent on what their government allows,
                      these things, and others, make him America's worst President on our economy. The national
                      defense and foreign policy is even worse, if possible. Our longstanding advantage in military
                      capabilities is being eroded. Aircraft and navies of governments who are not friends of ours, are
                      catching up and may surpass us. Our allies are on "pins and needles" as they try to determine
                      what we will do in an emergency. Lastly, the American public has become two peoples in one
                      nation, one still resembling America's heritage and the other being cast in the European mold, and
                      even the worst of that mold! This President plays to our weaknesses instead of challenging us
                      to analyse. He's undoing all that Martin Luther King accomplished. He lumps honest dissenters
                      in with terrorists and lumps terrorists in with honest Muslims. And we are only 18 months into his
                      term! Well...that's about it.
Joey:              Thanks a lot Hot Buttons. I'll tell my dad how much you helped me. He's the one that
                      recommended you for the el...der...ly person.
Hot Buttons:   Squiggy!
Joey:              Squiggy?
Hot Buttons:   Yeah...Squiggy. That was your dad's nick-name. Tell Squiggy that Hot Buttons says "You're
                      welcome!"
                     
               

Before Whom Angels Bow !!!

The Puritan had a way of praying that either makes a hearer today sit in humble introspection at the content of our own prayers or dismiss them as reflection of a people in need of some kind of assurance. The latter being somewhat of irony for the Puritans prayed that way because of their extreme assurance in the sovereignty of an Almighty God who has made a way of salvation so miraculous, so marvelous, so merciful that it can defy explanation to even the Christian mind. Thirty-five years ago Arthur Bennett edited a book of Puritan prayers that has moved many, many Christians, I being just one. I have included some of these prayers throughout the almost three years of this blog and want to give you another today. I encourage you to invest in this book if only to read one prayer a day to  hold our feet to what is humility, reverance and joy in prayer. The title is The Valley Of Vision and can be ordered from Amazon or any bookstore:

Lord of Immortality,

Before whom angels bow and archangels veil their faces,
enable me to serve thee with reverence and godly fear.
Thou who art Spirit and requirest truth in the inward parts,
help me to worship thee in spirit and in truth.
Thou who art righteous,
let me not harbour sin in my heart,
or indulge in a worldly temper,
or seek satisfaction in things that perish.
I hasten towards an hour
when earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain,
when it will be indifferent whether I have been rich or poor,
successful or disappointed,
admired or despised.
But it will be of eternal moment that I have
mourned for sin,
hungered and thristed after righteousness,
gloried in his cross.
May these objects engross my chief solicitude!
Produce in me those principles and dispositions
that make thy service perfect freedom.
Expel from my mind all sinful fear and shame,
so that with firmness and courage I may
confess the Redeemer before men,
go forth with him bearing his reproach,
be zealous with his knowledge,
be filled with his wisdom,
walk with his circumspection,
ask counsel of him in all things,
repair to the Scriptures for his orders,
stay my mind on his peace,
knowing that nothing can befall me
without his permission, appointment
and administration.

Flight 93 National Memorial

Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton were gone by the time my wife and I arrived at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania today. The ceremonies were concluding and the families of the heroes from Flight 93 individually walked from the memorial wall, down the path where Flight 93 made impact. As they were departing they walked through the midst of the crowd of roughly 4,000 to gentle, sustained, respectful and heartfelt applause. Part of the crowd spontaneously, and softly, broke out into America The Beautiful. Flight 93 National Memorial Park is roughly 15-20 minutes off of the Somerset exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I'm sure that many will add this stop to their travel agenda. I didn't need to hear the words from the speakers on the dais, moving as I'm sure they were, for I just wanted to be in the spot, or as close to it, to where this remarkable group of people struck back at terrorism before the terrorist's day of infamy was even over, very similar to those pilots who got off of the ground at Pearl Harbor before Tojo's planes could leave the islands. What happened on that flight, and the aftermath of it, could never have been envisioned by the terrorist minds involved. As the crowds were waiting for buses to take them back to the parking areas, I had the grand idea of walking up and over the field, meeting up to the road and then back to Route 30 where our car was parked on the berm of the road. A couple miles into the forced march back I had regretted subjecting my wife to this trek and we still had a couple of miles to go. The line-up of departing automobiles was long and slow and at times we walked faster than they inched along,  As one vehicle with two men inside passed, the driver asked if we wanted a ride. I'm the type that if I was stranded on a deserted island and a cruise ship spotted me and tried to rescue me I would say, "Only if I can work for my fare," but I looked over at my wife and then said "thank-you very much." The driver offered us a fruit drink as it was bumper to bumper out of the park but a great relief to us and we asked these two men a few questions on where they were from and why they had come. They were two of the four children of Flight 93 passenger Joseph Driscoll whose widow and many other family members were in other vehicles. I realized that they were probably emotionally spent and tired themselves but I did ask some questions about that fateful day and they very politely replied. One of the sons had been working in the World Trade Center only the day before the attacks and vividly described the scene on the New York City streets. His father would have been in the air on Flight 93 at that time. How typical of what I had heard of these families of the Flight 93 heroes, that they reached out to help others after they themselves were hurt and here they were doing it again on this special day.

Christ's Return

I presume that I am entitled to an interpretive view of biblical prophesy as all Christians are. In other words we all have an opinion. Even if one's view is that of total obfuscation as to coming events, that we will have no clue at all, that in itself is an opinion. This particular blog is structured as if we were just sitting around a table and talking. My views are always subject to both change and to your scrutiny. I do believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ may be near, in our generation, and also that it should be the hope of every Christian that it is near. I have a difficult time with the everyday newspaper headlines. The violence, the suffering and pain throughout humanity is overwhelming, especially in this information age where it is constantly before us. How can the Christian not both proclaim (maranatha) and desire the Lord's return! But it is also the obligation of every Christian from every age to be prepared to live their life to the full should the Lord tarry and to follow Martin Luther's declaration to plant a tree even if he knew for sure that the Lord was to return the next day. It appears certain to me that those of that generation, whether it be ours or another, will live through a tribulation that will shake both the unbeliever and the most devout believer in what will happen and we should know that in advance. The rapture doctrine will have been no help at that time and possibly be very destructive on how Christians handle the events. What are those events? All the talk of liberty and freedom that we hear of today, none more so than in this blog, would be for naught, for one power will indeed govern this planet at that time. If it be our generation, are we ready for it? The Christian will not only be persecuted by the anti-believer but even be totally rejected by that which calls itself the church. If it be us on earth as Christ returns are we aware in advance of what to expect? Some grand delusion is in store for that generation. It could, just for example, be the appearing of what the world will believe to be a visitation of alien life forms. If so it will be anything but, but are we prepared to stand firm in the face of this or some such other delusion? I have been inclined to believe for some time now that should a nuclear holocaust envelop the earth, or a similar catastrophe, that this would not be the time of Christ's return but rather only an event that will lead to a world government and only a prelude to what is actually in store. The conversation on prophesy needs to be extended throughout the church, not in dogmatic scenarios but possible scenarios to exercise our minds in the eventuality of imminent events as opposed to predicting future events. If you have sampled any of this blog then it surely must be apparent that these beliefs have not stopped my efforts, minuscule though they may be, to seek God's mercy on America one more time, for one more period where at least one nation exalts Christ albeit in the hearts of its people if not on paper. I hope that nowhere in these essays have I shown anything but full confidence that our God controls every action and every consequence in this entire universe. There is no question whatsoever as to the final result. To every unbeliever, the day will indeed come when you will want to be back at this very moment once again for you will then see not only the omnipotence of God in His power and might but the omniscience of Him who knows our innermost thoughts and is willing to clarify to us the rebellion in them and provide a way of salvation that begins with a humble acceptance of that omnipotence. What comes close to making this conversation a moot point in the life of the individual is that none of us can number our days on earth and that therefore this... is the day for that humbling. Revelation 1:3 lays it out for us in "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." I trust that throughout this blog my occasional touching on the topic of prophesy has been in line with the essence of scripture in that we are to be well aware of where man is headed and that the joy of Christ's sure coming is only sobered but a little because of what humanity must first go through.

Shoulder To Shoulder

Rush Limbaugh put it this way, that Barack Obama "Doesn't want to govern; he wants to rule." Fellow radio talk show host Jim Quinn (Sirius XM 166-weekday mornings) added that he treats Americans more like subjects than citizens. These are two important statements that should be seriously considered by those who, in 2008, voted in a new form of government in the United States of America, for a pattern has long since emerged of censorship, subterfuge and arrogance that reeks of third world dictators and Soviet block Comintern initiatives. The latest circumvention of Congress by this White House was to effectively stop deportation of illegal immigrants by essentially, through a maze of requirements, ordering its immigration lawyers to bypass the illegals in order to concentrate on, what they cleverly described as, real criminals. In effect it was amnesty by fiat; this change of heart only weeks after Barack Obama told the national Council of La Raza "Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own...". Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said that "We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law." Texas Congressman Michael McCaul added "It's just the latest attempt by this president to bypass the intended legislative process when he does not get his way." I personally do not know a whole lot of people who still support the Manchurian President in this White House. I do know many who hold to a strict change of venue in the debate in that they continue to defend their original decision to vote for Barack Obama but can no longer actually defend the man who they voted for. This particular blog is addressed to that person. Partisan politics is one thing but we, differing on many issues though we do, are in the same boat in that our nation is under assualt from both within and without and our children's futures have been downgraded to "D". This not because of the differences between liberal and conservative philosophies but between truth and lies, federalism and communism....between liberty and tyranny. Barack Obama is anything but a liberal in the traditional sense and much less a democrat in its historical context.  He is a Progressive but he is more. He and David Axelrod, Bill Ayers, Eric Holder, Valerie Jarrett and select others have duped those like Janet Napolitano, Joe Biden....and much of his cabinet, while even they themselves are merely pawns of others who have long hated what America stood for. There is a cohort now in charge that has no intention of instituting change through the Constitution but  rather eliminating the pertinence of that constitution. Today Facebook apologized for deleting Arizona Governor Jan Brewer''s Facebook comments that were critical of Barack Obama's taking the law into his own hands, for they "apparently"... "violated Facebook community standards." This slip should alone wake many up to the dangers of huge information-oriented corporations that not only have access to our personal information but the ability to design the information we receive in ways amenable to their cause. They also are merely recruited pawns. Surely there are a few reading this, who are not conservatives, who know that there is indeed an insidious agenda being acted out, not only in boardrooms, dachas and mountaintop retreats, but in our very capitol. You may not agree with my politics or my religion, you may not like me from what you read, but we are alike in that we want America to survive, we want the same opportunity for our children that we ourselves had. This cohort that I mentioned is not interested in the well-being of minorities, women or immigrants for these groups are also being used. Their only concern for you is that you continue to oppose us to the extent that you do not focus your gaze on them. The information is out there in abundance. Should you decide to go there it will not be a pleasant journey but satisfying in that you will see that many of the differences between us have been fabricated, stoked and fueled. Two weeks ago today, our family was travelling south along I-77 at Charlotte the same time that flash floods there took three lives. Yesterday, in Pittsburgh, flash floods took four lives. The roar of an approaching flash flood throughout America can be heard right now, for a storm has moved over us and stalled, the rains of tyranny raising streams from all quarters as they converge on the National Archives that houses our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. We need to be shoulder to shoulder and not face to face, for the sake of our children.

The Only Job Creator

Republicans tend to care for the poorer elements of society through promoting economic policies that, if enacted and allowed to run their course, would strengthen the economic fabric of the nation thereby giving opportunity to most, if not all, of those willing to take advantage of it. Democrats tended, at one time, to push for safety nets where all of those who cannot find that opportunity will at least be taken care of in the essentials needed. Conservatives tend to work as guardians of the free market, fully confidant that if there are no restrictions, growth and prosperity will naturally take place. Democrats now tend to don the chef's hat and apron, take up utensils and cut and stir while they add seasonings with one hand then the other as they attempt to be caterers to the disadvantaged, their wages being political support from those catered to. Republicans tend to defend the Constitution at all costs in order for freedom and liberty to flourish. Democrats tend to labor more for the rights of the underprivileged, at the expense of the constitution if necessary, who they perceive to be discriminated against, if in nothing else, a disadvantaged starting position in the quest for prosperity. Republicans tend to exalt Capitalism as an essential organ in the body politic, and are satisfied with the results even if, as it is today, it has been shown that many cannot play this game. Democrats tend to take full advantage of that Capitalism while denying it to others who are more valuable being dependent on entitlements. In either scheme, the plight of the poor is not on the front burner. Theoretically the Republicans are correct but that theory has been greatly weakened by events in the course of human nature. The Democrat loses in the battle of theory, for theirs (socialism) has proven, time and time again, ineffective at best and disastrous at worst. Compounding the problem for the Democrat, they have proven to be ethically challenged as the entitlements originally meant to benefit the poor, with the advent of the radical progressive, now benefit themselves through their reelection coffers. The Capitalist model failed to take into consideration the dark elements of human nature, the machinations of the globalist (a prime example being George Soros,) the nefarious inventiveness of Wall Street and the corporate executive married to the stockholder after divorcing their employees and the public well-being. The Founding Fathers, on the other hand, most certainly did take human nature seriously in their formula of checks and balances. So, our freedoms and liberty have a fighting chance in the Constitution but our economies do not have a fighting chance for Capitalism relies on the DNA of the free market and is oblivious to the DNA of man for it has no checks and balances other than recessions and depressions. Normally this works but in this globalist economy, and in this particular economy that is built upon the continual need to purchase-purchase-purchase, not essentials but non-essentials-often entertainments. We have put ourselves into the unenviable position of needing to curtail this personal spending, knowing full well that in doing so, our economy will sink even further into the abyss. Primarily because of the fallen nature of man, albeit for differing reasons and in different applications, both the Republican and Democratic answers to poverty cannot succeed. The former because it places compassion at the doorstep of the free market formula, acceptable in a mostly agrarian society and somewhat beyond but woefully lacking in the age of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nike and Abercrombie & Fitch. The latter because, the safety net now is used to insure that everyone has the funds to purchase these products. We cannot avoid the plight of the poor and disadvantaged, in fact it should be an all-consuming passion to address these needs. We cannot relegate them to the hope of a functioning economic model nor throw entitlements at them for dubious reasons. God gave words to one particular prophet (Isaiah) in advising a king of Judah (Ahaz) who was seeking to buy redemption from Judah's enemies. Among those words were these "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." Our poor will not receive compassion, our enemies will not be turned away and we ourselves will languish in misery and instability, if we are not firm in faith of whom Isaiah described this way, "and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Who Is The Evangelical?

So just who, and what, is the Evangelical that we hear about so often in the mainstream media? The term, today, is used as a pejorative and if it were possible to do, would flash red to alert the reader to pay particular attention to what they are up to. Evangelicalism is a very big tent, a revival tent of sorts, with room enough for many diverse church goers. At times, most recently at the Iowa straw poll, it's more like a huge tailgate party. I was an Evangelical for the better part of the 1980s, my highwater mark when I went to $100 a plate fundraiser for Pat Robertson's 1988 bid for the presidency. We needed a Christian president, I thought, who was also informed and intelligent and Pat filled that bill. Contrary to the accepted opinion on the Left, Evangelicals do not merely march in lock-step to to the commands of their favorite televangelist. They all hold to the same social issues because those issues are very clear in God's Word. They tend to back candidates that openly admit to going first to the Bible. They are generally, model citizens. They pay their taxes, give generously to charities and proudly send their sons and daughters off to the military making our armed forces America's most distinguished and honorable group! The Evangelical has been a blessing to this nation who ushered in Ronald Reagan and kept Al Gore and John Kerry out of the White House. It obviously failed with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and with Barack Hussein Obama. Evangelicals are red state, or would it be more apropos to say red states are evangelical? Without the resurgence of the fear of God within the evangelical community from the 1970s to today, America would be already past tense as I write this. As if at a state fair, they can easily move from the Evangelical tent to the Tea Party tent and mingle without any questions. When they enter the Libertarian tent, they can be viewed suspiciously even though they tend to feel at home. They fill Ohio Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Bryant-Denny Stadium and Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. They fly the Stars and Stripes (as I do) in front of their homes. They often have blended, interracial families. They coach youth athletics and swarm to coastal beaches (when they're not repairing homes in Appalachia) without littering the sand with bear cans. They read, read, read and are more at home, in politics anyway, listening to the spoken word rather than watching carefully crafted television news reports. They hunt, they fish and they vote. Their children tend to be polite and respectful of their elders. For all of this, they are feared and ridiculed. The other day, while watering the flowers, my cell phone rang. I rarely get phone calls on my cell phone for to me it is more of a constant conduit of news with a quaint app that lets you make phone calls in an emergency. It was a Gallop/USA Today pollster and I was as excited as a Democrat chief-of-elections finding a box of votes under the ice cream maker in the back of the hall. One question asked of me was if I were an Evangelical. Futilely, I attempted to explain the problem with the concept of Evangelical but had no other choice than to answer...yes. Such is it with much of America. All who are part of "Christianity," who apply Biblical truth to social issues, are labelled...Evangelicals. As an aside here...as has happened so often, I left the computer to go downstairs to listen to the radio program the White Horse Inn, which we have done faithfully at 8:30 Sunday evenings (101.5 FM in Pittsburgh) for almost two decades, and returned to the computer with a quote. By the way, I highly recommend that you go to their web site (http://www.whitehorseinn.org/). C. S. Lewis once said "The problem is not so much the de-Christianization of England, as the de-Christianization of the church." This is the problem with much of Evangelicalism today. The American pulpit, to a great degree, has failed the church. Christianity and Christendom have been united. The cross of Calvary is not preached, rather the felt needs of the congregation. The name of Jesus is ever-present but the person of Jesus Christ is unknown, the blood shed on Calvary for our sins ignored. One glaring example of our lack of discernment is Glenn Beck. Here is a man who saturates his broadcasts with Biblical terminology and a near worship of the state of Israel but exalts a false christ of Mormonism. This doesn't seem very important to the Evangelical. In fairness, if they were properly discipled in their churches they might not be so enamored with the patriot Glenn Beck. The Evangelical is weak on doctrine and without doctrinal truth there is no Christianity. The Evangelical comes too close to thinking of America as God's nation thus failing to separate the declaration of our redemption in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ from the Declaration of Independence. Politically the Evangelical can be naive, as I was with Pat Robertson. The media often points to the belief in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture where the Christians are taken away, leaving the unbeliever to face the Antichrist. This false doctrine permits the Christian to adopt the attitude written on a t-shirt I saw in a Christian bookstore where a pair of sneakers was all that was left as the basketball fan was taken up, out and off of his seat at a basketball game. The Evangelical voter can all too easily be taken in by the evangelical rhetoric of a run-of-the-mill establishment politician whose evangelical words are so strong that vetting of their history is not necessary. Still, the Evangelical has been a blessing to America but only insofar as they are citizens who still have their heads above water in a culture that is drowning. Unfortunately, because of the confusion enhanced by the media, the unbeliever thinks that he must necessarily come under that Evangelical tent if he were ever to consider his fallen condition before God. Should God have mercy on us as a nation and should His Spirit move over this land with His convicting power of irresistible grace, that Evangelical tent will not even be noticeable in the mass of humanity, at least not in the definition it has assumed in the last 40 years.

Rioters.. All Of Us

The British Daily Mail had an article by Max Hastings, linked on the Drudge Report, that begins Years of liberal dogma have spawned a generation of amoral, uneducated, welfare dependent brutalised youngsters. Hastings brings a hard message on the riots that England is experiencing but a vastly incomplete one. He writes that the normal rioter lives a "life of absolute futility....illiterate beyond maybe some dexterity with computer games and Blackberries." He continued, "Nobody has ever dared suggest to them that they need feel any allegiance to anything, least of all Britain or their community...the welfare state has relieved them from hunger and real want." He lays the blame in Britain of the "breakdown of families...the social engineering industry (and) the judiciary (that sides with it) in that the law appears to be there to protect the rights of the perpetrator, and does not support the victim." "How do you persuade children to renounce bad language when they hear little else from stars on the BBC?" he challenges. His stated answer to this is "Unless or until those who run Britain introduce incentives for decency and impose penalties for bestiality which are today lacking, there will never be a shortage of young rioters and looters such as those of the past four nights..." One of those rioters arrested was an 18 year old girl, a possible future Olympian runner, and Olympic ambassador from Britain! This, as an American possible future Olympian skier was involved in a similarly hideous incident here. This problem transcends economics into our spiritual beings. Aside from a minority, strong and faithful as they are, Britain has long since forsaken the one who enabled them to rise in stature in this world. Their great preacher of the 19th century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, warned of what was to come as he saw the watering-down of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his country. The Victorian Age became the culprit and Britain has since descended into the quagmire of misplaced empathy that enslaves it. Yes, liberal dogma destroyed the foundation of Britain and is doing so here in the name of American Progressivism. In both cases it deemed itself so much more intelligent than its creator and so more savvy than the Word given to us by that creator. It attempted to assuage its own guilt in rejecting God by applying to itself the mantle of administrators of compassion on everything that runs contrary to God's commands, and also to man's law. It proclaimed that "we are here for the minority" but have only hurt and impoverished them more, that "we are going to advance women's rights" but have hardened the God given blessedness of woman and have in reality demanded for women the overbearing arrogance and hedonist character that we men have made an art form of, it has said "we will advance the cause of the immigrant" but has eaten away at the opportunity even the illegal immigrant comes here for while disparaging the blessings the legal immigrant had already given us, it has boasted that "we will protect the children" but has left them scavenging amongst the many predators who profit from their lack of guidance. Our best efforts, mine included, are tinged with self-preservation. Our gated-communities are not an answer, even for those who live in them, for they give only a temporary relief, a small geographic safe-haven from a world run amok. The toys of smart phones, computer games and Facebook hurt more than they help but we have elevated them, and the many other trivialities of life, to evidence of success and happiness. We have become experts in promoting health, building buff bodies and beautiful appearances to the detriment of our souls, any real peace of mind, and any true joy. Social programs and entitlements are not the answer and even law and order cannot contain a spirit of rebellion that wants no part of God. Max Hastings quoted another in using the term "feral humans" in describing the rioters, and that would be an apt description of us all if there were not a truer one, for it is man's fallen nature that every one of us deals with. So many in the history of Liberalism and Progressivism deny this. We are basically good they say, in need of only a sound mind that can be engineered, but we are basically bad, in need of a sound mind that comes only by grace. We all riot every time when we rebel against God. We all loot when we fashion a gospel of our own making, a god of our own liking and a christ of our own creative imaginings. There will never be a shortage of rioters until Christ comes again. Only God's grace can insure that the rioter is isolated where he does not feed on the ambivalence of the majority, nor is egged on by others of like minds, nor planted in total darkness where the light of the gospel cannot point the way. Both Britain and America teeter on the edge where riots will be the least of our worries. As bleak as the situation is, and it has never been bleaker, not during the Civil War, nor on December 7th, 1941, and not as Rebellion became our middle name as our visible collapse began in the 1960s, our only hope is in the omniscience and omnipotence and mercy of Almighty God. One way or the other America and Britain will prostrate itself before Him, either in fear as He comes in judgement or in thankfulness as His Spirit melts our collective hearts.