Starbucks, Willow Creek split over gay issue
Baptist Press
Posted on Aug 12, 2011 | by Staff
CHICAGO (BP)--Shortly before he was scheduled to address thousands at the annual Willow Creek Leadership Summit, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz withdrew, prompted by a petition signed by only 700 people on the liberal website Change.org that said Willow Creek Community Church has a "long anti-gay history."
The petition objects not to the purpose or content of the annual leadership summit, but to former associations of the host. Willow Creek Community Church once had a relationship with Exodus International, the nation's largest Christian organization dedicated to reaching out to homosexuals. The church's break with Exodus drew criticism from some conservative Christians.
The Change.org petition called for a Starbucks boycott, saying that by not denouncing conversion therapy, Starbucks was giving "tacit approval."
Gay activists have targeted a growing number of corporations working with churches and ministries on various projects. The activists often call conservative Christian organizations "hate groups" and the label seems to be sticking.
However, "'hate' is too big a word to be thrown around with so little discretion," said Focus on the Family President Jim Daly.
"It is a damaging and dangerous thing to hang such an emotional epithet on a person or group because they think differently about some issues than you do," Daly said. "Believing what the Bible says about human sexuality is a personal conviction, not an act of persecution."
Southern Baptist leader Ed Stetzer says the "issue of homosexuality will need to be increasingly addressed -- and addressed graciously -- in the Christian community." Stetzer, vice president for research and ministry development at LifeWay Christian Resources, listed on his blog five principles about the controversy over churches and homosexuality:
-- "The issue is not going away and you cannot ignore it or seek to downplay your views.
-- "The culture sees this as a 'justice' issue -- Christians discriminating on the basis of immutable characteristics.
-- "Though it is easy to make the case (in the church) that homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture, it will be an exceedingly difficult case to make in today's culture.
-- "Building bridges and showing grace and love is needed, lacking, and essential when dealing with people with different views and values.
-- "At the end of the day, all evangelicals (including centrist evangelicals like those at Willow Creek) will still have to deal with an issue that the world perceives as narrow and bigoted."
Willow Creek senior pastor Bill Hybels said at the summit the church let Schultz out of his contract without penalty after discussing the petition with him.
"If organizers would have called us, we'd have said Willow Creek is not anti-gay. Willow Creek is not anti-anybody," Hybels said. "It's founded on the idea that all people matter to God. We don't check orientation at the door."
Noting Schultz "had to read through some tough e-mails," Hybels encouraged conference attendees to send him something nicer -- and to continue buying Starbucks coffee.
Willow Creek has received criticism from both sides of the issue. Alan Chambers, the president of Exodus, said he believes the church separated from Exodus because Willow Creek gave in to pressure from gay activists. In recent years, Soulforce targeted Willow Creek. Soulforce's mission is to encourage Christian organizations to religious acceptance of homosexuality. Though the church made the decision in 2009, it didn't become public until June of this year.
"Willow Creek is a strong church" but Chambers said he is nonetheless "deeply saddened to see that Willow Creek isn't going to offer strong discipleship for people struggling with same-sex attractions."
Chambers added, "It's a disappointing trend within churches and Christian owned ministries." These ministries are "feeling the pressure to distance themselves from their Christian friends and are afraid to stand in the public market and say 'this is what we believe.' It's a marker of things to come," Chambers said.
Full article from Baptist Press
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=35930
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Obama’s Feared “Lone Wolf Attack” Could Save His Presidency
Previous crises have presented unrivaled opportunities for US Presidents
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Barack Obama made headlines yesterday when he spoke about his fear of a “lone wolf attack” in America carried out by an individual with a “hateful ideology”. But far from striking a blow against his administration, such an attack would galvanize Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, as many political strategists have pointed out.
“The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well coordinated terrorist attack,” Obama told CNN during a campaign stop in Iowa.
“The risk that we’re especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort we saw in Norway recently,” said Obama.
Perversely, should the United States suffer a similar tragedy to Anders Breivik’s rampage in Norway, Obama’s hopes of securing a second term in the White House will receive a huge boost. Following the Oslo bombing and the Utoya island massacre, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s popularity has soared – in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy his approval rating leapt to 94 per cent.
History shows us that terror attacks present unrivaled opportunities for US Presidents to recapture popular support and rally the country around a strong leader.
In the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush’s approval ratings shot up from around the 50 per cent level to the 90 per cent mark, allowing him to pursue his geopolitical agenda in the middle east with a free hand.
Similarly, Bill Clinton was able to extinguish an anti-incumbent rebellion which was brewing in the mid 1990′s by exploiting the OKC bombing to demonize his political enemies as right-wing extremists. As Jack Cashill points out, Clinton “descended on Oklahoma City with an approval rating in the low 40s and left town with a rating well above 50 and the Republican revolution buried in the rubble.”
Absent a major crisis between now and November next year that Obama can exploit in order to rack up political points, his presidency is a dead duck. Obama’s approval ratings are in free fall, sinking to a new record low of 39 per cent in recent days. Every indication shows that Obama is on his way to a landslide defeat in 2012.
That’s why top political strategists are honest in their assessment that only a catalyzing crisis can turn around Obama’s political destiny.
Appearing on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC Hardball show last year, former Clintonite and Democrat operative Mark Penn said Obama needed an OKC bombing-style event to regain his popularity.
“Remember, President Clinton reconnected through Oklahoma, right?” said Penn. “And the president right now seems removed. It wasn’t until that speech [after the bombing] that [Clinton] really clicked with the American public. Obama needs a similar defining moment.”
Former senior advisor to President Bill Clinton Robert Shapiro echoed similar rhetoric when he wrote in the Financial Times that only an OKC bombing or 9/11 style event could provide Obama with the opportunity to demonstrate that he is a strong leader.
“The bottom line here is that Americans don’t believe in President Obama’s leadership,” said Shapiro, adding, “He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that.”
With a mere 17 per cent of Americans believing that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed, a shocking collapse in confidence that has left Americans “pre-revolutionary,” only a significant outside threat can now re-unite the country behind Obama and leave him any chance of defeating the Republican candidate in next year’s presidential run off.
Article retrieved from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/obamas-feared-lone-wolf-attack-could-save-his-presidency/
Copyright © 2010 Infowars. All rights reserved.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Georgia Guidestones
1.Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2.Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3.Unite humanity with a living new language.
4.Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5.Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6.Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7.Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8.Balance personal rights with social duties.
9.Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
2.Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3.Unite humanity with a living new language.
4.Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5.Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6.Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7.Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8.Balance personal rights with social duties.
9.Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
Friday, July 08, 2011
Sex at Work?
Sex at Work?
by Frank Turek
6/28/2011 Townhall.com
Are you supposed to have sex at work? I guess it depends on your profession, but for most of us the answer is “no.” Why then is corporate America obsessed with training about sex?
As described in several recent columns by Mike Adams, I was fired as a vendor by Cisco for my conservative beliefs about sex and marriage even though my beliefs were never expressed on the job. When a homosexual manager found out on the Internet that I had authored a book giving evidence that maintaining our current marriage laws would be best for society, he couldn’t tolerate me and requested I be fired. An HR executive canned me within hours without ever speaking to me. This happened despite the fact that the leadership and teambuilding programs I led always received high marks (even from the homosexual manager!).
How could an experienced HR professional commit such a blatant act of discrimination unless the Cisco culture was decidedly tilted left? Why didn’t Cisco’s relentless emphasis and training on “inclusion and diversity” serve to prevent this? Maybe it’s because “inclusion and diversity” means something different to corporate elites than to normal Americans. That’s why their training didn’t prevent the problem but actually created an environment of intolerance that led to the problem.
Cisco’s chief “Inclusion and Diversity” officer, Ms. Marilyn Nagel, had trouble on the phone defining what “inclusion and diversity” actually means at Cisco, so she sent me several links from the Cisco website. As in our conversation, I found no specific definition on the website but plenty of platitudes, such as Cisco is committed to “valuing and encouraging different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas.”
If that’s the case, then why not value my “perspectives, styles, thoughts and ideas?”
Because only certain perspectives, styles, thoughts and ideas are approved, you see. “Inclusion and diversity” to corporate elites actually means exclusion for those that don’t agree with the approved views. Whoops, there goes “diversity.”
Shouldn’t the real intent of Cisco’s value of “inclusion and diversity” be to ensure that people in that diverse workforce work together cordially and professionally even when they inevitably disagree on certain political, moral or religious questions? It would seem so. In a large multicultural workforce, people need to work together despite political or religious differences. That’s a noble and necessary goal. It’s totalitarian, however, to subject people to “diversity” training and corporate sponsorships that go beyond teaching respect for people to advocacy of what they do in bed.
All employees should treat one another with kindness and respect because they are fellow human beings, not because of their sexual behavior. If people are to be respected simply on the basis of their behavior, then none of us qualify for respect because we have all behaved badly on occasion.
So instead of trying to force all employees to accept any sexual behavior—especially something as controversial as homosexuality—the inclusion and diversity police should be urging us to treat all people with respect simply because we are human beings. That’s all you need to be productive at work anyway.
But as soon as you start telling people from different religious and cultural backgrounds what they must think about homosexuality, you will offend and create conflict andr resentment. As a Christian, I am commanded to respect all people. That’s what I was doing at Cisco. But don’t tell me that I have to respect and celebrate what people do in bed. Don’t tell me that I must violate my conscience or my God in order to make widgets. That’s not only immoral and un-American; it’s manipulative and stupid. How does accepting homosexual behavior have anything to do with job productivity? Are we supposed to have sex at work?
There simply is no business reason to judge my beliefs about sexual behavior or anyone else’s. And even if some corporate nanny could dream up a reason, it would not justify the assault on an employee’s conscience or religion.
Notice that Cisco did not have a problem with my behavior. My job performance was deemed excellent, and I was “inclusive and diverse” by working in a respectful manner with people of all moral, religious and political views.
Cisco had a problem with my thoughts. Although I certainly accepted homosexuals, I committed the thought crime of disagreeing with homosexual behavior and homosexual political goals. So despite all their talk about “inclusion and diversity,” Cisco deemed my thoughts about something irrelevant to the workplace as grounds for immediate exclusion. Do you think they would have excluded me if I had pro-same-sex marriage thoughts? Of course not—that’s an approved view that Cisco actually sponsors (even though they deny it).
But people who don’t accept homosexual behavior don’t have to work at Cisco then!
True, they don’t. But if Cisco or any other company wants to make it a requirement that every employee and vendor personally accept the behavior of homosexuality or homosexual political goals such as same-sex marriage, then tell us directly. Broadcast it to the world. Cisco can’t and won’t because such a requirement would be a clear violation of the religious protections codified in the Civil Rights Act, and it would result in a mass exodus of employees and customers.
Instead, they create an oppressive culture of political correctness under the false banner of “inclusion and diversity” to achieve the same ends. They tell the world that they value and encourage “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas” while they punish or intimidate into silence people who have “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas.” While Cisco executives would never admit this, their actions reveal this twisted truth: Cisco values homosexual behavior more than honesty, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.
Is it the same at your workplace? Are you tired of having to hide your conservative or religious beliefs as if you live in a totalitarian state rather than America? If you continue to cower in silence before an intolerant militant minority, it will only get worse. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.” It’s time to do something—speak up.
Full article:
http://americansfortruth.com/2011/07/08/cisco-fires-marriage-defender-frank-turek-%e2%80%93-latest-victim-of-homosexual-intolerance/#more-9540
by Frank Turek
6/28/2011 Townhall.com
Are you supposed to have sex at work? I guess it depends on your profession, but for most of us the answer is “no.” Why then is corporate America obsessed with training about sex?
As described in several recent columns by Mike Adams, I was fired as a vendor by Cisco for my conservative beliefs about sex and marriage even though my beliefs were never expressed on the job. When a homosexual manager found out on the Internet that I had authored a book giving evidence that maintaining our current marriage laws would be best for society, he couldn’t tolerate me and requested I be fired. An HR executive canned me within hours without ever speaking to me. This happened despite the fact that the leadership and teambuilding programs I led always received high marks (even from the homosexual manager!).
How could an experienced HR professional commit such a blatant act of discrimination unless the Cisco culture was decidedly tilted left? Why didn’t Cisco’s relentless emphasis and training on “inclusion and diversity” serve to prevent this? Maybe it’s because “inclusion and diversity” means something different to corporate elites than to normal Americans. That’s why their training didn’t prevent the problem but actually created an environment of intolerance that led to the problem.
Cisco’s chief “Inclusion and Diversity” officer, Ms. Marilyn Nagel, had trouble on the phone defining what “inclusion and diversity” actually means at Cisco, so she sent me several links from the Cisco website. As in our conversation, I found no specific definition on the website but plenty of platitudes, such as Cisco is committed to “valuing and encouraging different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas.”
If that’s the case, then why not value my “perspectives, styles, thoughts and ideas?”
Because only certain perspectives, styles, thoughts and ideas are approved, you see. “Inclusion and diversity” to corporate elites actually means exclusion for those that don’t agree with the approved views. Whoops, there goes “diversity.”
Shouldn’t the real intent of Cisco’s value of “inclusion and diversity” be to ensure that people in that diverse workforce work together cordially and professionally even when they inevitably disagree on certain political, moral or religious questions? It would seem so. In a large multicultural workforce, people need to work together despite political or religious differences. That’s a noble and necessary goal. It’s totalitarian, however, to subject people to “diversity” training and corporate sponsorships that go beyond teaching respect for people to advocacy of what they do in bed.
All employees should treat one another with kindness and respect because they are fellow human beings, not because of their sexual behavior. If people are to be respected simply on the basis of their behavior, then none of us qualify for respect because we have all behaved badly on occasion.
So instead of trying to force all employees to accept any sexual behavior—especially something as controversial as homosexuality—the inclusion and diversity police should be urging us to treat all people with respect simply because we are human beings. That’s all you need to be productive at work anyway.
But as soon as you start telling people from different religious and cultural backgrounds what they must think about homosexuality, you will offend and create conflict andr resentment. As a Christian, I am commanded to respect all people. That’s what I was doing at Cisco. But don’t tell me that I have to respect and celebrate what people do in bed. Don’t tell me that I must violate my conscience or my God in order to make widgets. That’s not only immoral and un-American; it’s manipulative and stupid. How does accepting homosexual behavior have anything to do with job productivity? Are we supposed to have sex at work?
There simply is no business reason to judge my beliefs about sexual behavior or anyone else’s. And even if some corporate nanny could dream up a reason, it would not justify the assault on an employee’s conscience or religion.
Notice that Cisco did not have a problem with my behavior. My job performance was deemed excellent, and I was “inclusive and diverse” by working in a respectful manner with people of all moral, religious and political views.
Cisco had a problem with my thoughts. Although I certainly accepted homosexuals, I committed the thought crime of disagreeing with homosexual behavior and homosexual political goals. So despite all their talk about “inclusion and diversity,” Cisco deemed my thoughts about something irrelevant to the workplace as grounds for immediate exclusion. Do you think they would have excluded me if I had pro-same-sex marriage thoughts? Of course not—that’s an approved view that Cisco actually sponsors (even though they deny it).
But people who don’t accept homosexual behavior don’t have to work at Cisco then!
True, they don’t. But if Cisco or any other company wants to make it a requirement that every employee and vendor personally accept the behavior of homosexuality or homosexual political goals such as same-sex marriage, then tell us directly. Broadcast it to the world. Cisco can’t and won’t because such a requirement would be a clear violation of the religious protections codified in the Civil Rights Act, and it would result in a mass exodus of employees and customers.
Instead, they create an oppressive culture of political correctness under the false banner of “inclusion and diversity” to achieve the same ends. They tell the world that they value and encourage “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas” while they punish or intimidate into silence people who have “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas.” While Cisco executives would never admit this, their actions reveal this twisted truth: Cisco values homosexual behavior more than honesty, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.
Is it the same at your workplace? Are you tired of having to hide your conservative or religious beliefs as if you live in a totalitarian state rather than America? If you continue to cower in silence before an intolerant militant minority, it will only get worse. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.” It’s time to do something—speak up.
Full article:
http://americansfortruth.com/2011/07/08/cisco-fires-marriage-defender-frank-turek-%e2%80%93-latest-victim-of-homosexual-intolerance/#more-9540
Friday, July 01, 2011
Love Bites
To: Advertisers on NBC program LOVE BITES
I am writing because your company has sponsored the NBC program LOVE BITES.
NBC describes the show as a romantic comedy; however, there is nothing either romantic or funny about this show. The storylines on LOVE BITES are not about love, but about illicit sex, and contain explicit themes, verbiage, and images that glorify the perverse.
The show is filled with references to fetishes and kinky sex, masturbation and pornography, meaningless and adulterous sex. And as these immoral and sexually deviant behaviors permeate the cultural waters in which we all swim, our children and families are the ones who especially pay the price.
As an advertiser, you know full well the persuasive power of images and verbiage in influencing behavior. And so I ask that you recognize the degrading impact of this show and withdraw your corporate sponsorship.
I look forward to your response.
Love Bites: huge ratings flop, but advertisers still sponsor
http://www.americandecency.org/archives/love-bites-huge-ratings-flop-but-advertisers-still-sponsor/
I am writing because your company has sponsored the NBC program LOVE BITES.
NBC describes the show as a romantic comedy; however, there is nothing either romantic or funny about this show. The storylines on LOVE BITES are not about love, but about illicit sex, and contain explicit themes, verbiage, and images that glorify the perverse.
The show is filled with references to fetishes and kinky sex, masturbation and pornography, meaningless and adulterous sex. And as these immoral and sexually deviant behaviors permeate the cultural waters in which we all swim, our children and families are the ones who especially pay the price.
As an advertiser, you know full well the persuasive power of images and verbiage in influencing behavior. And so I ask that you recognize the degrading impact of this show and withdraw your corporate sponsorship.
I look forward to your response.
Love Bites: huge ratings flop, but advertisers still sponsor
http://www.americandecency.org/archives/love-bites-huge-ratings-flop-but-advertisers-still-sponsor/
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Notes from Gary Bauer
Quoting:
[End of Day, Gary Bauer, 6/24/11]
Same-sex "marriage" is coming to your town and every American community coast-to-coast if Barack Obama is reelected. How do I know that? I know because of the kinds of judges he appoints and because of what he said at a fundraiser last night in Manhattan.
At that event Obama told hundreds of homosexual activists that while his views are evolving, "…if you keep up the fight, if you will devote your time and your energies to this campaign one more time, I promise you we will write another chapter in that story."
In other words, give Obama a second term and the next chapter in Obama's evolution will be the imposition of same-sex "marriage" on every state in the country.
Quoting:
[End of Day, Gary Bauer, 6/23/11]
Obama Still Doesn't Get It
Amid growing concerns about high gas prices and a double-dip recession, the Obama Administration, in coordination with other nations, announced today that up to 60 million barrels of oil would be released from emergency stockpiles. Half of that amount, 30 million barrels, is coming from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Oil prices dropped quickly on today's surprise announcement of more supply.
My car, just like everyone else's, runs on gasoline. Just like you, I am happy when the price goes down. But the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was not meant for price manipulation. Today's decision is just one more example of the Obama Administration "winging it;" going for political expediency over sound policy; short-term "highs" that leave us with hangovers later.
To begin with, today's decision should clearly put to rest any lingering assumptions about the economic success of the Obama stimulus boondoggle. If the economy were humming along, as we were promised it would be by now, we wouldn't be releasing oil from the emergency stockpile. "Shovel-ready" sounded good in February 2009, but today the unemployment rate is higher and we're another trillion dollars deeper in debt.
Oil prices are up because of instability in the Middle East, where Obama's policies are clueless at best, and frequently counterproductive. For all the hype about the "Arab Spring," a recent poll out of post-Mubarak Egypt finds that Osama bin Laden is nearly twice as popular as Barack Obama. The Libyan intervention was supposed to take "days, not weeks." Little has been done to stop Iran's nuclear program, and today Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, "If we do want to make a bomb, we are not afraid of anybody."
And why should he be? Obama just announced that he is leaving Afghanistan no matter what the situation is on the battlefield. Of course, he didn't put it that way, but that was the unmistakable signal to the rest of the world in last night's White House address.
Today, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of Congress that Obama's withdrawal plans are "more aggressive and incur more risk than I was originally prepared to accept." If the world's thugs perceive that America is burned out and in retreat, the world will become a more dangerous place.
[End of Day, Gary Bauer, 6/24/11]
Same-sex "marriage" is coming to your town and every American community coast-to-coast if Barack Obama is reelected. How do I know that? I know because of the kinds of judges he appoints and because of what he said at a fundraiser last night in Manhattan.
At that event Obama told hundreds of homosexual activists that while his views are evolving, "…if you keep up the fight, if you will devote your time and your energies to this campaign one more time, I promise you we will write another chapter in that story."
In other words, give Obama a second term and the next chapter in Obama's evolution will be the imposition of same-sex "marriage" on every state in the country.
Quoting:
[End of Day, Gary Bauer, 6/23/11]
Obama Still Doesn't Get It
Amid growing concerns about high gas prices and a double-dip recession, the Obama Administration, in coordination with other nations, announced today that up to 60 million barrels of oil would be released from emergency stockpiles. Half of that amount, 30 million barrels, is coming from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Oil prices dropped quickly on today's surprise announcement of more supply.
My car, just like everyone else's, runs on gasoline. Just like you, I am happy when the price goes down. But the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was not meant for price manipulation. Today's decision is just one more example of the Obama Administration "winging it;" going for political expediency over sound policy; short-term "highs" that leave us with hangovers later.
To begin with, today's decision should clearly put to rest any lingering assumptions about the economic success of the Obama stimulus boondoggle. If the economy were humming along, as we were promised it would be by now, we wouldn't be releasing oil from the emergency stockpile. "Shovel-ready" sounded good in February 2009, but today the unemployment rate is higher and we're another trillion dollars deeper in debt.
Oil prices are up because of instability in the Middle East, where Obama's policies are clueless at best, and frequently counterproductive. For all the hype about the "Arab Spring," a recent poll out of post-Mubarak Egypt finds that Osama bin Laden is nearly twice as popular as Barack Obama. The Libyan intervention was supposed to take "days, not weeks." Little has been done to stop Iran's nuclear program, and today Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, "If we do want to make a bomb, we are not afraid of anybody."
And why should he be? Obama just announced that he is leaving Afghanistan no matter what the situation is on the battlefield. Of course, he didn't put it that way, but that was the unmistakable signal to the rest of the world in last night's White House address.
Today, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of Congress that Obama's withdrawal plans are "more aggressive and incur more risk than I was originally prepared to accept." If the world's thugs perceive that America is burned out and in retreat, the world will become a more dangerous place.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Is The FCC's Indecency Policy Coming To An End.
June 28, 2011
www.radioink.com
Monday morning's order from the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the indecency case asks lawyers for both sides to address "Whether the Federal Communications Commission's current indecency-enforcement regime violates the First or Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution." For far too long broadcasters have been baffled by the "community standards" intepretation, not to mention the inconsistency between radio and TV rulings.
The granting of a hearing in F.C.C. v. Fox Television puts into question whether the court will overturn a 1978 ruling on indecency, F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation. The Pacifica decision, which upheld the commission’s finding that George Carlin’s classic “seven dirty words” radio monologue was indecent, cemented the F.C.C.’s ability to police the public airwaves.
For sure broadcasters have not been looking for ways to make a mad dash to the microphone so they can drop the F-Bomb. They would however like to see an easily understandable rule or law they can share with their employees so everyone knows where the line is. We wanted to know what it really meant for broadcasters now that the indecency policy of the FCC has made it all the way to the nation's most powerful judges. We asked attorney John Garziglia to address the topic for us.
"The Supreme Court’s acceptance of cert in the FCC v. Fox case may mark the final end to the FCC’s indecency enforcement. Broadly stated, the issue that will be before the Supreme Court is whether, in an effort to protect children, our government can continue to restrict radio and television broadcast stations from the broadcast of programming that meets the FCC’s test of indecency, but is not otherwise obscene."
"A concurrent Supreme Court decision overturning California’s ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minor provides several hints as to which way the Supreme Court will go when the FCC’s broadcast indecency enforcement is considered. In this 7-2 decision, Justice Thomas dissenting believes that government has the right to restrict speech to children that bypasses parents, and Justice Breyer believes that the protection of children trumps First Amendment protections that video games might otherwise have."
"One of the significant reasons for the statute giving the FCC authority to regulate indecency on the airwaves, but not for other media, is the protection of children. Indeed, broadcast stations are allowed to air programming that is otherwise indecent after 10:00 p.m. when children are presumably no longer in the audience. If only two Supreme Court Justices were willing to find in favor of a California statue designed to protect minors from violent video games, it may be that the Supreme Court will likewise find that broadcast stations are no longer that special guest in the home that merits treatment different than cable, DVDs, CDs, MP3s and the Internet."
"If the FCC’s indecency enforcement is overturned, radio comedy could become a mainstream format. Over time, we will likely hear radio personalities speaking in the vernacular of the community they serve, rather than restricting the use of words and thoughts that our government now deems illegal to broadcast. Songs, for better or worse, will be the versions that our children are actually listening to on their MP3s, not sanitized airplay versions. And finally, radio and television will be on a playing field that is level with cable and satellite, free to compete with the same horrible, offensive, shocking, titillating or boring content. Or, the Supreme Court could just punt and uphold the FCC’s current indecency regulations so that at least children will continue to be protected from broadcasters, even if children are not protected from the rest of the media world."
Full article:
http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=2223980&spid=30800
www.radioink.com
Monday morning's order from the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the indecency case asks lawyers for both sides to address "Whether the Federal Communications Commission's current indecency-enforcement regime violates the First or Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution." For far too long broadcasters have been baffled by the "community standards" intepretation, not to mention the inconsistency between radio and TV rulings.
The granting of a hearing in F.C.C. v. Fox Television puts into question whether the court will overturn a 1978 ruling on indecency, F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation. The Pacifica decision, which upheld the commission’s finding that George Carlin’s classic “seven dirty words” radio monologue was indecent, cemented the F.C.C.’s ability to police the public airwaves.
For sure broadcasters have not been looking for ways to make a mad dash to the microphone so they can drop the F-Bomb. They would however like to see an easily understandable rule or law they can share with their employees so everyone knows where the line is. We wanted to know what it really meant for broadcasters now that the indecency policy of the FCC has made it all the way to the nation's most powerful judges. We asked attorney John Garziglia to address the topic for us.
"The Supreme Court’s acceptance of cert in the FCC v. Fox case may mark the final end to the FCC’s indecency enforcement. Broadly stated, the issue that will be before the Supreme Court is whether, in an effort to protect children, our government can continue to restrict radio and television broadcast stations from the broadcast of programming that meets the FCC’s test of indecency, but is not otherwise obscene."
"A concurrent Supreme Court decision overturning California’s ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minor provides several hints as to which way the Supreme Court will go when the FCC’s broadcast indecency enforcement is considered. In this 7-2 decision, Justice Thomas dissenting believes that government has the right to restrict speech to children that bypasses parents, and Justice Breyer believes that the protection of children trumps First Amendment protections that video games might otherwise have."
"One of the significant reasons for the statute giving the FCC authority to regulate indecency on the airwaves, but not for other media, is the protection of children. Indeed, broadcast stations are allowed to air programming that is otherwise indecent after 10:00 p.m. when children are presumably no longer in the audience. If only two Supreme Court Justices were willing to find in favor of a California statue designed to protect minors from violent video games, it may be that the Supreme Court will likewise find that broadcast stations are no longer that special guest in the home that merits treatment different than cable, DVDs, CDs, MP3s and the Internet."
"If the FCC’s indecency enforcement is overturned, radio comedy could become a mainstream format. Over time, we will likely hear radio personalities speaking in the vernacular of the community they serve, rather than restricting the use of words and thoughts that our government now deems illegal to broadcast. Songs, for better or worse, will be the versions that our children are actually listening to on their MP3s, not sanitized airplay versions. And finally, radio and television will be on a playing field that is level with cable and satellite, free to compete with the same horrible, offensive, shocking, titillating or boring content. Or, the Supreme Court could just punt and uphold the FCC’s current indecency regulations so that at least children will continue to be protected from broadcasters, even if children are not protected from the rest of the media world."
Full article:
http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=2223980&spid=30800
Friday, June 24, 2011
Police Report: All Assault Rapists in Oslo Follow Muhammad
Defenders of Islam call it a "religion of peace" but many Norwegian women are learning that Islam is the religion of rape. According to an amazing police report released there this month, every single solved case of assault-rape in the country in 2010 was carried out by a Muslim immigrant.
The report was cited by an official Norwegian television station, which interviewed a victim who said that her rapist explained to her that his religion permits him to rape her.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145161
The report was cited by an official Norwegian television station, which interviewed a victim who said that her rapist explained to her that his religion permits him to rape her.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145161
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
THE PHONY RIGHTWING: Romney
THE PHONY RIGHTWING
By Kelleigh Nelson
June 15, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
Norman Thomas (1884-1968) six time U.S. Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Norman Thomas and Gus Hall, the U.S. Communist Party Candidates, both quit American politics, agreeing that the Republican and Democratic parties had adopted every plank of the Communist/Socialist party and they no longer had an alternate party platform on which to run.
Willard Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney was born in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan to former Governor of Michigan, George W. Romney and his wife, Lenore Romney. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and attended Brigham Young University.
When Willard was a sophomore in high school he participated in the campaign for his father's first term as Governor of Michigan. CFR member George Romney was reelected twice and Mitt even worked for him as an intern. He went to the 1964 Republican National Convention when his moderate father battled conservative Barry Goldwater for the party nomination over issues of civil rights and ideological extremism. The family ended up supporting Lyndon Baines Johnson for president.
Willard got his Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. In 1966, Mitt left for France as a Mormon missionary which is a traditional duty of sons of Mormons. This was the first time Mitt was living a life of deprivation. With the rules of no drinking or smoking, he failed to gain many converts in France. The French Catholics are wine loving people and prove especially resistant to a religion that prohibits alcohol. His missionary years were not the best esteem builders, yet he still holds a great fondness for France.
Romney entered into management consulting and had a position at Bain and Company. He eventually served as it's CEO and led it out of a financial crisis. He was the founder too of a spinoff company Bain Capital, a profitable equity investment firm. He had an excellent record of success with clients like Monsanto Company, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated. Of course Monsanto is responsible for the majority of GMO seeds and foods in our nation today.
He won the election for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, but only served one term. The state was in financial peril and had a projected $3 billion shortfall. The reason it was in peril is like all states, the politicians overspend and then expect the taxpayers to make up the difference. Unexpected revenue came in from a previously enacted capital gains tax increase and $500 million in federal grants which decreased the deficit to $1.2 to 1.5 billion. Through some budget manipulating and cuts in state aid to cities and towns, and major cuts to universities which increased the tuition by 63% over four years, as well as his vetoing many items, although all were overridden by the Democrat majority legislature, he managed to bring in more to the Massachusetts treasury. What Romney really did to fix the budget was what most Governors, both left and right do. They raise taxes on the people of the state. He raised fees for marriage, driver's, and gun licenses. He increased the state gasoline fee by 2 cents per gallon and he closed tax loopholes that caused businesses to pay more taxes. This brought in $541 million to the coffers, but created financial hardships on businesses in Massachusetts.
Romney Care
Of course this all didn't last long with the adoption of the socialist universal health care mandate Willard gave Massachusetts. He promised it wouldn't raise taxes, but incorporated a new payroll tax. He also pushed for incorporating an individual mandate at the state level. His past rival Ted Kennedy (he ran against Kennedy for Senator in 1994), who had pushed universal health coverage for years became a close friend of Romney's and helped push the state's Democrats into voting for it along with the Republicans.
With Romney Care all residents of the state are required to buy health insurance or face escalating tax penalties such as the loss of their personal income tax exemptions. This is, in effect a tax on their very existence in the state of Massachusetts! The most draconian sections of the bill that would put burdens on businesses were vetoed by Romney, but the Democrat legislature overrode them all. Romney Care also finances abortion with a $50 dollar co-pay. This entire bill was endorsed by Marxists Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and of course Planned Parenthood who has now helped murder 56 million American babies in the womb with help of plans like Romney Care.
At the same time Massachusetts also created a new state entitlement that was already trembling on the verge of bankruptcy inside of a year. It is called Commonwealth Care, it uses a sliding income scale to subsidize coverage for everyone under 300% of the federal poverty level, or about $63,000 for a family of four. In 2008, the year's appropriation for Commonwealth Care was $472 million, but officials have asked for an add-on that will bring it to $625 million. For 2009, Governor Deval Patrick requested $869 million but conceded that even that huge figure is too low. Over the coming decade, the expected overruns float in as much as $4 billion over budget. So, despite Romney's getting the state out of the red with new fees and taxes, he turned around and gave the state a huge new bureaucracy that now has it near bankruptcy.
Romney on Abortion
1994 - Romney stated, "I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country.
2001 - While campaigning in Utah, Romney said, "I am not pro-choice."
2002 - While in Massachusetts, Romney quipped, "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose.
2004 - Romney again magically became pro-life.
2005 - Once again in liberal Massachusetts, Romney spoke these words, "I am actually committed to my promise to maintain the status quo with regards to laws related to abortion and choice. He even exempted Catholic and Christian hospitals from refusing the morning-after pill in case of rape.
Not only does Romney not advocate a ban on embryonic research, he actually supports government funding for the lethal use of the tiniest children for research, demonstrating the falsity of both his conversion and his account of it. And yet many pro-family "leaders" have chosen to ignore the truth, and believe lies.
Now on the campaign trail again, he's saying he's pro-life, but let's look at his record.
After he claimed a pro-life conversion, Willard Mitt Romney
• authorized tax-funded surgical elective abortion two years after he claimed he was pro-life.
• advocated grisly research on embryos after he claimed a pro-life conversion.
• nominated a pro-abort Democrat judge after he claimed a pro-life conversion.
• gave Planned Parenthood a permanent seat on a state board after he claimed a pro- life conversion.
• bragged that he would continue to defend abortion "rights" after he claimed a pro-life conversion.
His record is absolutely shocking and in another campaign speech he stated he is personally pro-life, but doesn't want to push his personal religious beliefs on society. So, society's cultural decline and the murder of 56 million innocent babies shouldn't have any commentary from the religious sidelines?
To top it off, the Pro-Life Family Movement discredits themselves again and again. Many conservatives repeat his false claim of being pro-life including Ann Coulter, saying "Romney governed as a pro-lifer." Jordan Sekulow through his father's organization, ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice) wrote, "Governor Romney would and still could make a great candidate." Jay Sekulow is a CNP member. Tony Perkins (CNP) at the Family Research Council says Romney is, "solidly conservative across the board," and a Focus Action Candidate Commentary video from Focus on the Family(CNP) shockingly agrees with Romney that, "on the social issues we are so similar." Remember, these groups are members of the secretive Council for National Policy and nearly all are UN-NGO's. As UN-non governmental organizations, they must agree with the planks of the Marxist UN to get NGO status.
These groups and people say all this of a man who
• funded abortion statewide through taxpayer monies
• opposed a Massachusetts Defense of Marriage Constitutional amendment
• said homosexuals should be allowed in the boy scouts
• officially celebrated "Gay-Straight Youth Pride Day"
• sat on the board of directors for a leading purveyor of pornography without opposing the corporation's exploitation of women
• instituted homosexual marriage
• was ahead of Barack Obama in promoting government controlled health care.
Willard Mitt Romney states, "On every piece of legislation, I came down on the side of life."
Gay Rights and Marriage
When Romney ran against Ted Kennedy for Senator in 1994, he wrote a letter to the Log Cabin Republicans stating, "We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern."
Romney also stated in 2002 that "All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual orientation." Willard said that domestic partnership status should be recognized in a way that includes the potential for health benefits and rights of survivorship. Most companies today give health benefits to homosexual partners. One of the first was the conservative company of Colorado, Coors Beer while their backyard neighbor and fellow Council for National Policy member James Dobson of Focus on the Family railed against one of the airlines for giving health benefits to homosexual partners.
Romney also supported hate crimes legislation during his campaign for governor. In 2002, Romney also opposed a Massachusetts constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships because the amendment would have prohibited domestic partnership benefits for gays and lesbians.
• supported Bill Clinton's "Don't ask, don't tell" and thinks it worked and shouldn't be changed.
• boosted funding for homosexual "education" starting in kindergarten
• opposes a ban on homosexual scoutmasters
• forced Catholic Charities, the nation's #1 adoption and foster care service to place children with same sex couples even though he was under no legal obligation to do so.
• passed over Republican lawyers for three quarters of the 36 judicial vacancies he faced and nominated two open homosexuals.
• supports passage at the state level of the Employment non-discrimination Act which would force churches and other religious organizations to hire homosexuals and transvestites or face criminal fines and prosecution.
Global Warming/Climate Change and Cap and Trade
On CBS with Katy Couric in February, 2009, Romney said this, "I think the risks of climate change are real. And that you're seeing real climate change. And I think human activity is contributing to it. I would develop within this country sources of energy which would allow us to be free of foreign oil. But sources that don't emit CO2."
"I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire."
Romney supports regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through voluntary measure. He would eliminate "dirty" coal power plants even at the cost of losing jobs because he believes coal plants kill people.
Illegal Aliens and Amnesty
Although Romney says he's against amnesty for illegal aliens, he also says, "I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country." (Willard, it's probably more like 40 or 50 million people here illegally and according to FBI statistics they murder 25 American citizens per day!) Willard says he would like to see illegal immigrants register with the government, pay taxes, and apply for citizenship. What? How about entering the country the way all our ancestors did? How about coming into this country legally? Does Willard have any idea of how many "other types" are crossing the border so easily?
Education
Romney supported the infamous, No Child Left Behind, as well as the federal government's involvement in education. See Charlotte Iserbyt's article. He approved efforts in Massachusetts to REQUIRE parents in poorly performing schools to attend parental education classes. He also is for Charter Schools. See education expert, Char Iserbyt's article on Charter Schools.
Second Amendment
Willard Romney has stated in past campaigns that he is a proponent of gun control and fully supports a ban on assault weapons. He enacted a ban in Massachusetts on many so called "military style assault weapons." Romney stated, "These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people." Sorry Willard, but you don't know squat about firearms, nor do you understand that the second amendment is the very teeth of the Bill of Rights. And you don't even own a gun!
In 1994, Willard also supported the Brady Bill. The Center for Handgun Violence which is Sarah Brady's organization, is responsible for countless lawsuits against manufacturers and various state firearm laws. They are rabid anti-gunners, as obviously is Willard Mitt Romney.
Sustainable Development and Agenda 21
In 2004, as part of Willard's goal to adopt a strategic approach to "land protection" in Massachusetts, he launched a plan to help cities and towns adopt "smart growth" policies that foster sustainable development. He stated that he wanted a more coordinated approach to "land conservation," involving housing, environmental and transportation agencies.
As I mentioned in my previous article on Newt Gingrich, federal or state land grabs under the guise of sustainability are wholly unconstitutional. However, once again, elimination of land by the federal or state governments when it belongs to the people, is fully a plank of the communist manifesto.
Conclusions
Obviously Willard Mitt Romney is no conservative. His stances on issues are tainted with communist tenets, and I've only covered a few of them. Why then do people who claim to be "conservatives" and "Christians," like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Hugh Hewitt, Mark DeMoss, Richard Land, Stu Epperson, Jay Sekulow, Jim Dobson, Tom Minnery, and Tony Perkins, claim that he's a conservative?
Sadly, we are dealing with many false friends of the constitution and what I call "controlled" opposition to the communist agenda.
The above facts regarding Romney's platforms change depending upon which group he is speaking to and whether they're liberal or conservative. However, his actions in Massachusetts as governor speak volumes about what Romney really stands for and it's certainly not the constitution...more like the communist agenda.
We've many other candidates, many with far less communist tenets than Newt or Willard, but none that are really solid true constitutionalists. We'll discuss them in the next article.
Proverbs 12:20 - Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counselors of peace is joy.
Full Article:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Nelson/kelleigh123.htm
By Kelleigh Nelson
June 15, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
Norman Thomas (1884-1968) six time U.S. Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Norman Thomas and Gus Hall, the U.S. Communist Party Candidates, both quit American politics, agreeing that the Republican and Democratic parties had adopted every plank of the Communist/Socialist party and they no longer had an alternate party platform on which to run.
Willard Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney was born in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan to former Governor of Michigan, George W. Romney and his wife, Lenore Romney. He was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and attended Brigham Young University.
When Willard was a sophomore in high school he participated in the campaign for his father's first term as Governor of Michigan. CFR member George Romney was reelected twice and Mitt even worked for him as an intern. He went to the 1964 Republican National Convention when his moderate father battled conservative Barry Goldwater for the party nomination over issues of civil rights and ideological extremism. The family ended up supporting Lyndon Baines Johnson for president.
Willard got his Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. In 1966, Mitt left for France as a Mormon missionary which is a traditional duty of sons of Mormons. This was the first time Mitt was living a life of deprivation. With the rules of no drinking or smoking, he failed to gain many converts in France. The French Catholics are wine loving people and prove especially resistant to a religion that prohibits alcohol. His missionary years were not the best esteem builders, yet he still holds a great fondness for France.
Romney entered into management consulting and had a position at Bain and Company. He eventually served as it's CEO and led it out of a financial crisis. He was the founder too of a spinoff company Bain Capital, a profitable equity investment firm. He had an excellent record of success with clients like Monsanto Company, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated. Of course Monsanto is responsible for the majority of GMO seeds and foods in our nation today.
He won the election for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, but only served one term. The state was in financial peril and had a projected $3 billion shortfall. The reason it was in peril is like all states, the politicians overspend and then expect the taxpayers to make up the difference. Unexpected revenue came in from a previously enacted capital gains tax increase and $500 million in federal grants which decreased the deficit to $1.2 to 1.5 billion. Through some budget manipulating and cuts in state aid to cities and towns, and major cuts to universities which increased the tuition by 63% over four years, as well as his vetoing many items, although all were overridden by the Democrat majority legislature, he managed to bring in more to the Massachusetts treasury. What Romney really did to fix the budget was what most Governors, both left and right do. They raise taxes on the people of the state. He raised fees for marriage, driver's, and gun licenses. He increased the state gasoline fee by 2 cents per gallon and he closed tax loopholes that caused businesses to pay more taxes. This brought in $541 million to the coffers, but created financial hardships on businesses in Massachusetts.
Romney Care
Of course this all didn't last long with the adoption of the socialist universal health care mandate Willard gave Massachusetts. He promised it wouldn't raise taxes, but incorporated a new payroll tax. He also pushed for incorporating an individual mandate at the state level. His past rival Ted Kennedy (he ran against Kennedy for Senator in 1994), who had pushed universal health coverage for years became a close friend of Romney's and helped push the state's Democrats into voting for it along with the Republicans.
With Romney Care all residents of the state are required to buy health insurance or face escalating tax penalties such as the loss of their personal income tax exemptions. This is, in effect a tax on their very existence in the state of Massachusetts! The most draconian sections of the bill that would put burdens on businesses were vetoed by Romney, but the Democrat legislature overrode them all. Romney Care also finances abortion with a $50 dollar co-pay. This entire bill was endorsed by Marxists Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and of course Planned Parenthood who has now helped murder 56 million American babies in the womb with help of plans like Romney Care.
At the same time Massachusetts also created a new state entitlement that was already trembling on the verge of bankruptcy inside of a year. It is called Commonwealth Care, it uses a sliding income scale to subsidize coverage for everyone under 300% of the federal poverty level, or about $63,000 for a family of four. In 2008, the year's appropriation for Commonwealth Care was $472 million, but officials have asked for an add-on that will bring it to $625 million. For 2009, Governor Deval Patrick requested $869 million but conceded that even that huge figure is too low. Over the coming decade, the expected overruns float in as much as $4 billion over budget. So, despite Romney's getting the state out of the red with new fees and taxes, he turned around and gave the state a huge new bureaucracy that now has it near bankruptcy.
Romney on Abortion
1994 - Romney stated, "I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country.
2001 - While campaigning in Utah, Romney said, "I am not pro-choice."
2002 - While in Massachusetts, Romney quipped, "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose.
2004 - Romney again magically became pro-life.
2005 - Once again in liberal Massachusetts, Romney spoke these words, "I am actually committed to my promise to maintain the status quo with regards to laws related to abortion and choice. He even exempted Catholic and Christian hospitals from refusing the morning-after pill in case of rape.
Not only does Romney not advocate a ban on embryonic research, he actually supports government funding for the lethal use of the tiniest children for research, demonstrating the falsity of both his conversion and his account of it. And yet many pro-family "leaders" have chosen to ignore the truth, and believe lies.
Now on the campaign trail again, he's saying he's pro-life, but let's look at his record.
After he claimed a pro-life conversion, Willard Mitt Romney
• authorized tax-funded surgical elective abortion two years after he claimed he was pro-life.
• advocated grisly research on embryos after he claimed a pro-life conversion.
• nominated a pro-abort Democrat judge after he claimed a pro-life conversion.
• gave Planned Parenthood a permanent seat on a state board after he claimed a pro- life conversion.
• bragged that he would continue to defend abortion "rights" after he claimed a pro-life conversion.
His record is absolutely shocking and in another campaign speech he stated he is personally pro-life, but doesn't want to push his personal religious beliefs on society. So, society's cultural decline and the murder of 56 million innocent babies shouldn't have any commentary from the religious sidelines?
To top it off, the Pro-Life Family Movement discredits themselves again and again. Many conservatives repeat his false claim of being pro-life including Ann Coulter, saying "Romney governed as a pro-lifer." Jordan Sekulow through his father's organization, ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice) wrote, "Governor Romney would and still could make a great candidate." Jay Sekulow is a CNP member. Tony Perkins (CNP) at the Family Research Council says Romney is, "solidly conservative across the board," and a Focus Action Candidate Commentary video from Focus on the Family(CNP) shockingly agrees with Romney that, "on the social issues we are so similar." Remember, these groups are members of the secretive Council for National Policy and nearly all are UN-NGO's. As UN-non governmental organizations, they must agree with the planks of the Marxist UN to get NGO status.
These groups and people say all this of a man who
• funded abortion statewide through taxpayer monies
• opposed a Massachusetts Defense of Marriage Constitutional amendment
• said homosexuals should be allowed in the boy scouts
• officially celebrated "Gay-Straight Youth Pride Day"
• sat on the board of directors for a leading purveyor of pornography without opposing the corporation's exploitation of women
• instituted homosexual marriage
• was ahead of Barack Obama in promoting government controlled health care.
Willard Mitt Romney states, "On every piece of legislation, I came down on the side of life."
Gay Rights and Marriage
When Romney ran against Ted Kennedy for Senator in 1994, he wrote a letter to the Log Cabin Republicans stating, "We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern."
Romney also stated in 2002 that "All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual orientation." Willard said that domestic partnership status should be recognized in a way that includes the potential for health benefits and rights of survivorship. Most companies today give health benefits to homosexual partners. One of the first was the conservative company of Colorado, Coors Beer while their backyard neighbor and fellow Council for National Policy member James Dobson of Focus on the Family railed against one of the airlines for giving health benefits to homosexual partners.
Romney also supported hate crimes legislation during his campaign for governor. In 2002, Romney also opposed a Massachusetts constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships because the amendment would have prohibited domestic partnership benefits for gays and lesbians.
• supported Bill Clinton's "Don't ask, don't tell" and thinks it worked and shouldn't be changed.
• boosted funding for homosexual "education" starting in kindergarten
• opposes a ban on homosexual scoutmasters
• forced Catholic Charities, the nation's #1 adoption and foster care service to place children with same sex couples even though he was under no legal obligation to do so.
• passed over Republican lawyers for three quarters of the 36 judicial vacancies he faced and nominated two open homosexuals.
• supports passage at the state level of the Employment non-discrimination Act which would force churches and other religious organizations to hire homosexuals and transvestites or face criminal fines and prosecution.
Global Warming/Climate Change and Cap and Trade
On CBS with Katy Couric in February, 2009, Romney said this, "I think the risks of climate change are real. And that you're seeing real climate change. And I think human activity is contributing to it. I would develop within this country sources of energy which would allow us to be free of foreign oil. But sources that don't emit CO2."
"I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire."
Romney supports regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through voluntary measure. He would eliminate "dirty" coal power plants even at the cost of losing jobs because he believes coal plants kill people.
Illegal Aliens and Amnesty
Although Romney says he's against amnesty for illegal aliens, he also says, "I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country." (Willard, it's probably more like 40 or 50 million people here illegally and according to FBI statistics they murder 25 American citizens per day!) Willard says he would like to see illegal immigrants register with the government, pay taxes, and apply for citizenship. What? How about entering the country the way all our ancestors did? How about coming into this country legally? Does Willard have any idea of how many "other types" are crossing the border so easily?
Education
Romney supported the infamous, No Child Left Behind, as well as the federal government's involvement in education. See Charlotte Iserbyt's article. He approved efforts in Massachusetts to REQUIRE parents in poorly performing schools to attend parental education classes. He also is for Charter Schools. See education expert, Char Iserbyt's article on Charter Schools.
Second Amendment
Willard Romney has stated in past campaigns that he is a proponent of gun control and fully supports a ban on assault weapons. He enacted a ban in Massachusetts on many so called "military style assault weapons." Romney stated, "These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people." Sorry Willard, but you don't know squat about firearms, nor do you understand that the second amendment is the very teeth of the Bill of Rights. And you don't even own a gun!
In 1994, Willard also supported the Brady Bill. The Center for Handgun Violence which is Sarah Brady's organization, is responsible for countless lawsuits against manufacturers and various state firearm laws. They are rabid anti-gunners, as obviously is Willard Mitt Romney.
Sustainable Development and Agenda 21
In 2004, as part of Willard's goal to adopt a strategic approach to "land protection" in Massachusetts, he launched a plan to help cities and towns adopt "smart growth" policies that foster sustainable development. He stated that he wanted a more coordinated approach to "land conservation," involving housing, environmental and transportation agencies.
As I mentioned in my previous article on Newt Gingrich, federal or state land grabs under the guise of sustainability are wholly unconstitutional. However, once again, elimination of land by the federal or state governments when it belongs to the people, is fully a plank of the communist manifesto.
Conclusions
Obviously Willard Mitt Romney is no conservative. His stances on issues are tainted with communist tenets, and I've only covered a few of them. Why then do people who claim to be "conservatives" and "Christians," like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Hugh Hewitt, Mark DeMoss, Richard Land, Stu Epperson, Jay Sekulow, Jim Dobson, Tom Minnery, and Tony Perkins, claim that he's a conservative?
Sadly, we are dealing with many false friends of the constitution and what I call "controlled" opposition to the communist agenda.
The above facts regarding Romney's platforms change depending upon which group he is speaking to and whether they're liberal or conservative. However, his actions in Massachusetts as governor speak volumes about what Romney really stands for and it's certainly not the constitution...more like the communist agenda.
We've many other candidates, many with far less communist tenets than Newt or Willard, but none that are really solid true constitutionalists. We'll discuss them in the next article.
Proverbs 12:20 - Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counselors of peace is joy.
Full Article:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Nelson/kelleigh123.htm
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
1984
The Fabian Society was founded on 4 January 1884 in London as an offshoot of a society founded in 1883 called The Fellowship of the New Life.
It was this date that George Orwell used to title his book 1984. The myth has been that George Orwell flipped the last two digits of the year that he wrote the book. However, he wrote 1984 in 1949. Notice that 1984 is 100 years after the founding of the Fabian Society. George Orwell as sending out a warning of what he saw society to be like under the influence of Fabian Socialism.
One would have thought that with the ensuing horrors of that day perpetrated under Adolph Hitler during the 1930s and early 1940s, the Fabians would have had second thoughts about their “Grand Design.”
However, after World War II, Fabian Socialist Bertrand Russell authored The Impact of Science Upon Society, in which he declared:
More info:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Cuddy/dennis209.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society
It was this date that George Orwell used to title his book 1984. The myth has been that George Orwell flipped the last two digits of the year that he wrote the book. However, he wrote 1984 in 1949. Notice that 1984 is 100 years after the founding of the Fabian Society. George Orwell as sending out a warning of what he saw society to be like under the influence of Fabian Socialism.
One would have thought that with the ensuing horrors of that day perpetrated under Adolph Hitler during the 1930s and early 1940s, the Fabians would have had second thoughts about their “Grand Design.”
However, after World War II, Fabian Socialist Bertrand Russell authored The Impact of Science Upon Society, in which he declared:
“I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology…. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen….
There are, however, two powerful forces opposed to such a policy: one is religion; the other is nationalism…. Population can be kept from increasing…. Perhaps bacteriological war may prove effective. If Black Death could be spread throughout the world once in every generation survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full…. [The world] authority should deal out the world’s food to the various nations in proportion to their population at the time of the establishment of the authority. If any nation subsequently increased its population, it should not on that account receive any more food.”
More info:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Cuddy/dennis209.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Newt Gingrich Co-Sponsored the 1987 Pro-Fairness Doctrine Bill
Flashback: Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1987 (H.R. 1934)
The so-called Fairness Doctrine is the anti-First Amendment now unenforced Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule which chilled free speech on the radio from its FCC creation in 1949 until the Commission voted to stop its enforcement in 1987.
The Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1987 (H.R. 1934) sprung up immediately after this latter vote to try to turn the Doctrine into law. Then Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich was one of its 71 co-sponsors.
I can’t for the life of me find the final vote, so I do not know if Gingrich voted for it – though it would be a might strange for someone to co-sponsor a bill and then not say Aye.
I did find a pro-Fairness Doctrine video that says the bill passed the House by a 3-1 margin – and that Gingrich voted for it.
It also passed the Senate – but President Ronald Reagan thankfully then broke out his veto pen.
This was all of course in the midst of the dark days of the Republicans’ 40+ years spent wandering in the House Minority wilderness, so there was rarely any need for any Elephant to sponsor anything – they were an irrelevant species.
The makeup of the 100th Congress was in fact 258 Democrats (59.3%) and just 177 Republicans (40.7%) – an overwhelming Donkey Majority.
Gingrich was not the lone Republican co-sponsor of the Fairness Doctrine – there were a total of twenty-one. Including several names you’ll know – conservatives (Illinois’ Henry Hyde and Phil Crane, California’s Bob Dornan) and…not so much (Mississippi’s Trent Lott).
Make of Gingrich’s co-sponsorship what you will – in the context of some of his other unconservative actions (Dede Scozzafava, his pro-global warming commercial with Democrat then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his saying that his philosophy could “involve a very activist government” to name but a few).
Behold the full Republican co-sponsor list.
Rep Bliley, Tom [VA-3]
Rep Buechner, Jack [MO-2]
Rep Callahan, Sonny [AL-1]
Rep Coleman, E. Thomas [MO-6]
Rep Conte, Silvio O. [MA-1]
Rep Craig, Larry E. [ID-1]
Rep Crane, Philip M. [IL-12]
Rep Dannemeyer, William E. [CA-39]
Rep Daub, Hal [NE-2]
Rep Dornan, Robert K. [CA-38]
Rep Fields, Jack [TX-8]
Rep Hyde, Henry J. [IL-6]
Rep Lagomarsino, Robert J. [CA-19]
Rep Leach, James A. [IA-1]
Rep Lott, Trent [MS-5]
Rep Madigan, Edward R. [IL-15]
Rep Marlenee, Ron [MT-2]
Rep Nielson, Howard C. [UT-3]
Rep Schuette, Bill [MI-10]
Rep Sundquist, Don [TN-7]
Rep Weber, Vin [MN-2]
Full article:
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/04/29/newt-gingrich-co-sponsored-the-1987-pro-fairness-doctrine-bill/
The so-called Fairness Doctrine is the anti-First Amendment now unenforced Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule which chilled free speech on the radio from its FCC creation in 1949 until the Commission voted to stop its enforcement in 1987.
The Fairness in Broadcasting Act of 1987 (H.R. 1934) sprung up immediately after this latter vote to try to turn the Doctrine into law. Then Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich was one of its 71 co-sponsors.
I can’t for the life of me find the final vote, so I do not know if Gingrich voted for it – though it would be a might strange for someone to co-sponsor a bill and then not say Aye.
I did find a pro-Fairness Doctrine video that says the bill passed the House by a 3-1 margin – and that Gingrich voted for it.
It also passed the Senate – but President Ronald Reagan thankfully then broke out his veto pen.
This was all of course in the midst of the dark days of the Republicans’ 40+ years spent wandering in the House Minority wilderness, so there was rarely any need for any Elephant to sponsor anything – they were an irrelevant species.
The makeup of the 100th Congress was in fact 258 Democrats (59.3%) and just 177 Republicans (40.7%) – an overwhelming Donkey Majority.
Gingrich was not the lone Republican co-sponsor of the Fairness Doctrine – there were a total of twenty-one. Including several names you’ll know – conservatives (Illinois’ Henry Hyde and Phil Crane, California’s Bob Dornan) and…not so much (Mississippi’s Trent Lott).
Make of Gingrich’s co-sponsorship what you will – in the context of some of his other unconservative actions (Dede Scozzafava, his pro-global warming commercial with Democrat then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his saying that his philosophy could “involve a very activist government” to name but a few).
Behold the full Republican co-sponsor list.
Rep Bliley, Tom [VA-3]
Rep Buechner, Jack [MO-2]
Rep Callahan, Sonny [AL-1]
Rep Coleman, E. Thomas [MO-6]
Rep Conte, Silvio O. [MA-1]
Rep Craig, Larry E. [ID-1]
Rep Crane, Philip M. [IL-12]
Rep Dannemeyer, William E. [CA-39]
Rep Daub, Hal [NE-2]
Rep Dornan, Robert K. [CA-38]
Rep Fields, Jack [TX-8]
Rep Hyde, Henry J. [IL-6]
Rep Lagomarsino, Robert J. [CA-19]
Rep Leach, James A. [IA-1]
Rep Lott, Trent [MS-5]
Rep Madigan, Edward R. [IL-15]
Rep Marlenee, Ron [MT-2]
Rep Nielson, Howard C. [UT-3]
Rep Schuette, Bill [MI-10]
Rep Sundquist, Don [TN-7]
Rep Weber, Vin [MN-2]
Full article:
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/04/29/newt-gingrich-co-sponsored-the-1987-pro-fairness-doctrine-bill/
Judge orders three-year-old into daycare for ‘socialization’
by Patrick B. Craine
QUEBEC, May 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Quebec judge has ordered a three-year-old and a five-year-old to attend state-funded day care following claims that the children lacked proper “socialization.”
The parents of the Notre-Dame-des-Bois family were also ordered to place their two elder homeschooled children in public schools, and accused of failing to act quickly to correct learning disabilities, despite their doctor’s testimony to the contrary.
“This is a shocking decision,” said Paul Faris of the Canadian branch of the Home School Legal Defense Association, who have backed the family’s case. He told LifeSiteNews this is the latest in the Quebec government’s ongoing effort to “clamp down on choice in education.”
He said the most concerning part is the judge’s decision to “order the younger children who were not of compulsory school age into day care for socialization.”
The family, who have homeschooled for four years, were reported to the province’s Youth Protection Services in November 2009 after a run-in with the local school board. The elder children were ordered into school in April 2010 after court proceedings began in February 2010. There was a four-day trial in November, and Judge Nicole Bernier issued her ruling in March.
Faris said the court refused to hear the parents’ expert witness and dismissed the testimony of the family doctor, who has been fully supportive of their medical decisions. In her ruling, Judge Bernier claimed the family doctor’s testimony lacked objectivity and was “full of bias” owing to his relationship with the parents.
Faris said the judge gave “excess weight” to the government’s experts, who he says “found that one child’s hearing impairment ‘indicated’ that the parents could not be trusted and therefore all the children should be enrolled in public school programs.” Judge Bernier determined that the security and development of the children was compromised by parental negligence.
In her ruling, Judge Bernier called the mother’s teaching approach “outdated,” saying it emphasized repetition exercises and acquisition of knowledge rather than the Ministry’s preferred approach of teaching learning skills. She also criticizes the elder children’s social development, noting that they had difficulty at first with the other children when they entered the classroom.
“The parents, though aware … of the need to stimulate each child by interactions with peers of the same age, outside of the family, either at school, kindergarten, or day care or occasional education trips, maintain their interest in the teaching model of the home school,” she wrote, going on to lament that they are “refusing to integrate the youngest in kindergarten or day care, and opposing educational outings for the children.”
“Their reasons are always the same and regard a social mistrust that does not meet the needs of their children,” she added. She also took issue with the fact that the parents apparently had not obtained a homeschooling exemption under the Education Act, which requires that the parents offer a program equivalent to that offered in the schools.
The family, which is Roman Catholic, is now launching an appeal to the Quebec Superior Court.
Faris argued that the ruling ignored objective measurement of the children’s successful development.
“This is a quality homeschooling family that exercised diligence in teaching their kids,” Faris told LifeSiteNews. “We’ve had the kids tested and are certainly satisfied that they’re doing well.”
News of this family’s plight comes as the Quebec government faces a Supreme Court challenge this month of their refusal to allow exemptions in the public schools from a controversial course in relativism known as “ethics and religious culture.”
The government has even tried to impose the mandatory ERC program, which purports to present the spectrum of world religions and lifestyle choices from a “neutral” stance, on the province’s private schools. A Superior Court judge ruled in June 2010 that their effort to do so had assumed a “totalitarian character.”
In December, the government instituted a ban on religious instruction in its government-funded daycares.
Michael Donnelly, Director of International Relations for the Home School Legal Defense Association, said Quebec appears to be joining countries like Germany and Sweden in its repressive opposition to homeschooling.
“There is homeschooling freedom in most of Canada. However, it appears that Québec is more like Germany or Sweden when it comes to homeschooling regulations,” said Donnelly.
“This judge’s decision reads like one from these countries that are repressing homeschooling. The philosophy represented by this judge’s decision must be resisted.”
Full article:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/quebec-judge-orders-three-year-old-into-daycare-for-socialization
QUEBEC, May 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Quebec judge has ordered a three-year-old and a five-year-old to attend state-funded day care following claims that the children lacked proper “socialization.”
The parents of the Notre-Dame-des-Bois family were also ordered to place their two elder homeschooled children in public schools, and accused of failing to act quickly to correct learning disabilities, despite their doctor’s testimony to the contrary.
“This is a shocking decision,” said Paul Faris of the Canadian branch of the Home School Legal Defense Association, who have backed the family’s case. He told LifeSiteNews this is the latest in the Quebec government’s ongoing effort to “clamp down on choice in education.”
He said the most concerning part is the judge’s decision to “order the younger children who were not of compulsory school age into day care for socialization.”
The family, who have homeschooled for four years, were reported to the province’s Youth Protection Services in November 2009 after a run-in with the local school board. The elder children were ordered into school in April 2010 after court proceedings began in February 2010. There was a four-day trial in November, and Judge Nicole Bernier issued her ruling in March.
Faris said the court refused to hear the parents’ expert witness and dismissed the testimony of the family doctor, who has been fully supportive of their medical decisions. In her ruling, Judge Bernier claimed the family doctor’s testimony lacked objectivity and was “full of bias” owing to his relationship with the parents.
Faris said the judge gave “excess weight” to the government’s experts, who he says “found that one child’s hearing impairment ‘indicated’ that the parents could not be trusted and therefore all the children should be enrolled in public school programs.” Judge Bernier determined that the security and development of the children was compromised by parental negligence.
In her ruling, Judge Bernier called the mother’s teaching approach “outdated,” saying it emphasized repetition exercises and acquisition of knowledge rather than the Ministry’s preferred approach of teaching learning skills. She also criticizes the elder children’s social development, noting that they had difficulty at first with the other children when they entered the classroom.
“The parents, though aware … of the need to stimulate each child by interactions with peers of the same age, outside of the family, either at school, kindergarten, or day care or occasional education trips, maintain their interest in the teaching model of the home school,” she wrote, going on to lament that they are “refusing to integrate the youngest in kindergarten or day care, and opposing educational outings for the children.”
“Their reasons are always the same and regard a social mistrust that does not meet the needs of their children,” she added. She also took issue with the fact that the parents apparently had not obtained a homeschooling exemption under the Education Act, which requires that the parents offer a program equivalent to that offered in the schools.
The family, which is Roman Catholic, is now launching an appeal to the Quebec Superior Court.
Faris argued that the ruling ignored objective measurement of the children’s successful development.
“This is a quality homeschooling family that exercised diligence in teaching their kids,” Faris told LifeSiteNews. “We’ve had the kids tested and are certainly satisfied that they’re doing well.”
News of this family’s plight comes as the Quebec government faces a Supreme Court challenge this month of their refusal to allow exemptions in the public schools from a controversial course in relativism known as “ethics and religious culture.”
The government has even tried to impose the mandatory ERC program, which purports to present the spectrum of world religions and lifestyle choices from a “neutral” stance, on the province’s private schools. A Superior Court judge ruled in June 2010 that their effort to do so had assumed a “totalitarian character.”
In December, the government instituted a ban on religious instruction in its government-funded daycares.
Michael Donnelly, Director of International Relations for the Home School Legal Defense Association, said Quebec appears to be joining countries like Germany and Sweden in its repressive opposition to homeschooling.
“There is homeschooling freedom in most of Canada. However, it appears that Québec is more like Germany or Sweden when it comes to homeschooling regulations,” said Donnelly.
“This judge’s decision reads like one from these countries that are repressing homeschooling. The philosophy represented by this judge’s decision must be resisted.”
Full article:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/quebec-judge-orders-three-year-old-into-daycare-for-socialization
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Jesus is God
Jesus is God Incarnate
• Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
• Matthew 1:23 [Speaking of Jesus]"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
• John 1:14 the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
• Zech. 12:10 [God says] I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
• 1 Tim. 3:16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
• Rev. 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so.
Amen.
Jesus is Eternal
• Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you."
• Psalm 93:2 Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
• Isaiah 63:16 you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
• Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
• John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."
• John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Jesus has Divine Names
The Good Shepherd
• Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
• Psalm 80:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
• Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
• John 10:11-14 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
Mighty God
• Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Lord and God
• Matthew 22:42-45 saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying," 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
• John 20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
Savior
• Isaiah 43:3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
• Isaiah 43:11 I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.
• Isaiah 45:15 O God of Israel, the Savior.
• Isaiah 45:21 a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.
• Hosea 13:4 But I am the LORD your God…and besides me there is no savior.
• Luke 1:47 [Mary, speaking of Jesus]my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
• Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
• Philip. 3:20 our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
• 2 Tim. 1:10 our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel
• 1 Tim. 4:10 we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
• 2 Peter 2:20 our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
The Rock
• Deut. 32:4 "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
• Deut. 32:15 Jeshurun… forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
• Deut. 32:18 …unmindful of the Rock that bore you… you forgot the God who gave you birth.
• Deut. 32:30-31 How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up? For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.
• 1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
• Psalm 18:31 For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?-
• Romans 9:33 Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
• 1 Cor. 10:1-4 [Israel, in the desert] …drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
• 1 Peter 2:7-8 [Jesus]The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense
The Light
• Psalm 27:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation;whom shall I fear?
• Micah 7:8 the Lord will be a light to me.
• John 1:4-9 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
• John 8:12 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
The First and the Last
• Isaiah 44:6 Thus says the LORD… "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
• Rev. 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
• Rev. 1:17 [Jesus said],"Fear not, I am the first and the last"
• Rev. 2:8 [These are the] words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.
• Rev. 21:6 [Jesus said] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
• Rev. 22:13 [Jesus Said] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
Jesus Claimed Equality with God
• Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
• John 10:30 I and the Father are one."
• John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
• Philip. 2:6 [Jesus] though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
• John 5:16-18 "My Father is working until now, and I am working." …the Jews were
seeking all the more to kill him… because he was calling God his own Father,
making himself equal with God.
• John 5:21-23 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
• John 8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins."
• John 8:28 "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
• John 8:58-59 Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." So they picked up stones to throw at him
• John 10:30-33 "I and the Father are one." Again Jews picked up stones again to stone him, because He claimed to be God
Jesus is Omnipresent
• Matthew 18:20 where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
• Matthew 28:20 behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
• John 3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except him who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Jesus is Omnipotent
Matthew 8:27 What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?
Matthew 28:18 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Jesus is Omniscient
• Matthew 9:4 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?
• (See Also: Matthew 12:25, Matthew 22:18, Mark 2:8 , Luke 5:22, Luke 6:8, Luke 9:46-48)
• John 1:48 Jesus knew Nathanael while he was under the fig tree
• John 2:24-25 He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
• John 4:28-29 [Samaritan Woman] "Come; see a man who told me all that I ever did."
• John 6:64 Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe,
• John 18:4 He knew all that would happen to him
• Acts 1:24 Lord, who know the hearts of all
• Col. 2:3 In [Jesus] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Jesus is the Creator
• John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
• Col. 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.
• Hebrews 1:3 He upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Jesus has Power over Nature
• Matthew 14:25 Walked on Water
• Luke 8:24 Rebuked the Wind
Jesus received Worship
Only God may be worshiped
• In Matthew 4:10 Jesus Himself said "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve"
• Yet In Matthew 8:2; 9:18 and 15:25 He allows people to kneel before Him and call Him Lord
Jesus was Worshiped by the Disciples
• Matthew 28:9 [The disciples] came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
Jesus was Worshiped by Others
• John 9:38 The man born Blind said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
Jesus is Worshiped by Angels
• Hebrews 1:6 Let all God's angels worship him.
Jesus forgives Sins
• Matthew 9:2 Jesus said, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."
• Matthew 9:6 "…the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"
• Mark 2:5 "My son, your sins are forgiven."
• Mark 2:10 "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"
• Luke 5:20 Jesus said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."
• Luke 5:24 "the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"
• Luke 7:47-50 Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven." Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"
• Acts 5:31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
• Col. 3:13 the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Jesus has power over Life and Death
• John 10:17-18 I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."
• Rev. 1:18 [I am] the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
• Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
• Matthew 1:23 [Speaking of Jesus]"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
• John 1:14 the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
• Zech. 12:10 [God says] I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
• 1 Tim. 3:16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
• Rev. 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so.
Amen.
Jesus is Eternal
• Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you."
• Psalm 93:2 Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
• Isaiah 63:16 you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
• Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
• John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."
• John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Jesus has Divine Names
The Good Shepherd
• Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
• Psalm 80:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
• Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
• John 10:11-14 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
Mighty God
• Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Lord and God
• Matthew 22:42-45 saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying," 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
• John 20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
Savior
• Isaiah 43:3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
• Isaiah 43:11 I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.
• Isaiah 45:15 O God of Israel, the Savior.
• Isaiah 45:21 a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.
• Hosea 13:4 But I am the LORD your God…and besides me there is no savior.
• Luke 1:47 [Mary, speaking of Jesus]my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
• Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
• Philip. 3:20 our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
• 2 Tim. 1:10 our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel
• 1 Tim. 4:10 we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
• 2 Peter 2:20 our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
The Rock
• Deut. 32:4 "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
• Deut. 32:15 Jeshurun… forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
• Deut. 32:18 …unmindful of the Rock that bore you… you forgot the God who gave you birth.
• Deut. 32:30-31 How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up? For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.
• 1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
• Psalm 18:31 For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?-
• Romans 9:33 Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
• 1 Cor. 10:1-4 [Israel, in the desert] …drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
• 1 Peter 2:7-8 [Jesus]The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense
The Light
• Psalm 27:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation;whom shall I fear?
• Micah 7:8 the Lord will be a light to me.
• John 1:4-9 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
• John 8:12 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
The First and the Last
• Isaiah 44:6 Thus says the LORD… "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
• Rev. 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
• Rev. 1:17 [Jesus said],"Fear not, I am the first and the last"
• Rev. 2:8 [These are the] words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.
• Rev. 21:6 [Jesus said] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
• Rev. 22:13 [Jesus Said] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
Jesus Claimed Equality with God
• Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
• John 10:30 I and the Father are one."
• John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
• Philip. 2:6 [Jesus] though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
• John 5:16-18 "My Father is working until now, and I am working." …the Jews were
seeking all the more to kill him… because he was calling God his own Father,
making himself equal with God.
• John 5:21-23 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
• John 8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins."
• John 8:28 "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
• John 8:58-59 Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." So they picked up stones to throw at him
• John 10:30-33 "I and the Father are one." Again Jews picked up stones again to stone him, because He claimed to be God
Jesus is Omnipresent
• Matthew 18:20 where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
• Matthew 28:20 behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
• John 3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except him who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Jesus is Omnipotent
Matthew 8:27 What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?
Matthew 28:18 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Jesus is Omniscient
• Matthew 9:4 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?
• (See Also: Matthew 12:25, Matthew 22:18, Mark 2:8 , Luke 5:22, Luke 6:8, Luke 9:46-48)
• John 1:48 Jesus knew Nathanael while he was under the fig tree
• John 2:24-25 He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
• John 4:28-29 [Samaritan Woman] "Come; see a man who told me all that I ever did."
• John 6:64 Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe,
• John 18:4 He knew all that would happen to him
• Acts 1:24 Lord, who know the hearts of all
• Col. 2:3 In [Jesus] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Jesus is the Creator
• John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
• Col. 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him.
• Hebrews 1:3 He upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Jesus has Power over Nature
• Matthew 14:25 Walked on Water
• Luke 8:24 Rebuked the Wind
Jesus received Worship
Only God may be worshiped
• In Matthew 4:10 Jesus Himself said "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve"
• Yet In Matthew 8:2; 9:18 and 15:25 He allows people to kneel before Him and call Him Lord
Jesus was Worshiped by the Disciples
• Matthew 28:9 [The disciples] came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
Jesus was Worshiped by Others
• John 9:38 The man born Blind said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
Jesus is Worshiped by Angels
• Hebrews 1:6 Let all God's angels worship him.
Jesus forgives Sins
• Matthew 9:2 Jesus said, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."
• Matthew 9:6 "…the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"
• Mark 2:5 "My son, your sins are forgiven."
• Mark 2:10 "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"
• Luke 5:20 Jesus said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."
• Luke 5:24 "the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"
• Luke 7:47-50 Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven." Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"
• Acts 5:31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
• Col. 3:13 the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Jesus has power over Life and Death
• John 10:17-18 I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."
• Rev. 1:18 [I am] the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Circumcision ban to be on San Francisco ballot
NEWS BRIEFS: Circumcision ban to be on San Francisco ballot
Posted on May 19, 2011 | by Staff
SAN FRANCISCO (BP)--San Francisco citizens will vote this November whether to ban the circumcision of male children, a first-in-the-nation type of initiative that, if passed, could be struck down in court as a violation of religious freedom.
The group behind the initiative needed 7,168 signatures and got 7,743, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. It would make it illegal to circumcise males under 18, and would punish violators with a fine of $1,000 and up to a year in jail. The initiative has no religious exceptions, the Associated Press reported.
"Parents are really guardians, and guardians have to do what's in the best interest of the child. It's his body. It's his choice," initiative supporter Lloyd Schofield told AP.
Rabbi Gil Yosef Leeds of Berkeley said he has received lots of concerned phone calls from Jewish friends about the initiative. He is confident it will be struck down even if it passes.
"For a city that's renowned for being progressive and open-minded, to even have to consider such an intolerant proposition ... it sets a dangerous precedent for all cities and states," Leeds told AP.
Posted on May 19, 2011 | by Staff
SAN FRANCISCO (BP)--San Francisco citizens will vote this November whether to ban the circumcision of male children, a first-in-the-nation type of initiative that, if passed, could be struck down in court as a violation of religious freedom.
The group behind the initiative needed 7,168 signatures and got 7,743, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. It would make it illegal to circumcise males under 18, and would punish violators with a fine of $1,000 and up to a year in jail. The initiative has no religious exceptions, the Associated Press reported.
"Parents are really guardians, and guardians have to do what's in the best interest of the child. It's his body. It's his choice," initiative supporter Lloyd Schofield told AP.
Rabbi Gil Yosef Leeds of Berkeley said he has received lots of concerned phone calls from Jewish friends about the initiative. He is confident it will be struck down even if it passes.
"For a city that's renowned for being progressive and open-minded, to even have to consider such an intolerant proposition ... it sets a dangerous precedent for all cities and states," Leeds told AP.
Handing the Executive Branch Unchecked War Authority
WAR, PART 6
By Al Duncan
May 20, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
Those who trade freedom for temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety. The opposite of freedom is slavery. The opposite of safety, in this context, is responsibility. Likewise, those who trade freedom for temporary wealth deserve neither wealth nor freedom. In every case, the opposite of freedom is slavery.
I understand that most do not have the time or the wherewithal to decipher the surge of local, national and international news transpiring daily, which is why God has provided “watchmen on the wall,” such as myself, to trumpet coming danger. However, once honest, clear and accurate information is presented, all responsibility then rests squarely upon the recipient.
We become accomplices to those atrocities we fail to oppose.
According to Pete Kasperowicz, writing for The Hill, May 11, 2011, “Nearly three-dozen House Democrats are calling on Republicans to withdraw a section of the 2012 defense authorization bill that they say would effectively declare a state of permanent war against unnamed Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.”
In a letter written to the House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), House Democrats are requesting him to immediately hold hearings on these proposals before including them in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). “Whatever one thinks of these various proposals in the Detainee Security Act, it is clear that they will have serious consequences and should be examined extensively. We therefore request that you use your chairmanship to immediately call hearings on Detainee Security Act so that the American people have an opportunity to consider the serious impacts that this legislation could have on our national security.”
However, Instead of considering the Democrats’ request, on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, McKeon has decided to hold a markup to grant committee approval of the bill.
The Democrats letter cites language in the authorization bill that incorporates the Detainee Security Act, which affirms continued armed conflict against terrorists overseas. The specific language in the bill is found in section 1034 of H.R. 1540.
The offending text (H.R. 1540 – section 1034) uses doublespeak to declare World War III. Specifically, the text uses the phrase “affirms” and “armed conflict” which is the same terminology used by congress to declare war in every confrontation since World War II.
Congress affirms that —
(1) the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces and that those entities continue to pose a threat to the U.S. and its citizens, both domestically and abroad;
(2) the President has the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note);
(3) the current armed conflict includes nations, organization, and persons who—
(A) are part of, or are substantially supporting, al Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or
(B) have engaged in hostilities or have directly supported hostilities in aid of a nation, organization, or person described in subparagraph (A);
(4) the President’s authority pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) includes the authority to detain belligerents, including persons described in paragraph three, until the termination of hostilities.
This legislation authorizes the President of the United States to take unilateral military action against all nations, organizations, and persons, both domestically and abroad, who are alleged to be currently or who have in the past supported or engaged in hostilities or who have provided aid in support of hostilities against the U.S. or any of its coalition allies.
The legislation removes the requirement of congressional approval for the use of military force and instead gives the President totalitarian dictatorial authority to engage in any and all military actions for an indefinite period of time.
It even gives the President the authority to launch attacks against American Citizens inside the U.S. with no congressional oversight whatsoever.
Therefore, the president would have full authority to invade Iran, Syria, North Korea, along with several other nations in Africa and the Middle East and even Russia and China under the legislation all of which are known to have supported and aided hostilities against the U.S.
Even the America Civil Liberties Union takes issue with this legislation. They write:
“A ‘sleeper provision’ deep inside defense bills pending before Congress could become the single biggest hand-over of unchecked war authority from Congress to the executive branch in modern American history.”
The ACLU continues, “Congress is considering monumental new legislation that would grant the president—and all presidents after him—sweeping new power to make war almost anywhere and everywhere. Unlike previous grants of authority for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the proposed legislation would allow a president to use military force wherever terrorism suspects are present in the world, regardless of whether there has been any harm to U.S. citizens, or any attack on the U.S., or any imminent threat of an attack. The legislation is broad enough to permit a president to use military force within the United States and against American citizens.
“Now, Congress is poised to give unchecked authority to the executive branch to use military force worldwide, with profoundly negative consequences for our fundamental democratic system of checks and balances. Once Congress expands the president’s war power, it will be nearly impossible to rein it back in. The ACLU strongly opposes a wholesale turnover of war power from Congress to the president—and all of his successors.”
Surprisingly, the Obama administration has made it clear that it already has all of the authority that it needs to fight terrorism. This confirms my belief that the perpetrators behind this declaration of constant worldwide war are the Neo-cons, the Military Industrial Complex and the Project for the New American Century. This also illustrates the magnitude of power these warmongering profiteers exert over our public representatives, in this case, principally the Republican Party.
Giving these warmongering profiteers the authority and the capability to militarily confront nations anywhere and peoples everywhere also gives them the menacing threat of total world dominance. Remember these wise axioms: “Power is not a means, it’s an end. The object of power is power,” (George Orwell, 1984) and "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," (Lord Acton).
The Posse Comitatus Act is a U.S. federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed June 18, 1878 (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807), limiting the federal government’s powers to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits most federal uniformed services from exercising state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property within the United States.
The military are trained to seek and kill. The Posse Comitatus Act prevented a President from using the military against American citizens within the U.S. In the past the local police department was an agency whose motto was to “protect and serve,” now, through the enticement of federal funds, they are being trained in military style tactics, with the American people being targeted as the enemy.
The John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act (PL 109-364) of 2006, Signed by President Bush on Oct. 17 2006, has a provision called “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies.” The new language adds “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident” to the list, thus permitting the President to take over local authority. It also broadened what constitutes “conspiracy,” to anyone who “has purposely and materially supported hostilities against the U.S.”
According to the Inter Press Service (IPS), February 5, 2010, “Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, acknowledged in a congressional hearing Wednesday that the U.S. may, with executive approval, deliberately target and kill U.S. citizens suspected of being involved in terrorism.
In essence, The Warner Act removes all restraints, giving the sitting president, whomever he or she may be, the power at his or her sole discretion to use the military against American citizens right here on U.S. soil.
Chip Pitts, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee president, related to IPS, “While Bush embraced indefinite detention, the Obama administration favors targeted extra-judicial killing—including of U.S. citizens—is a tragic legal, moral and practical mistake.”
Ben Wizner, ACLU attorney with the National Security Project, said, “It is alarming to hear that the Obama administration is asserting that the president can authorize the assassination of Americans, even if they are far from any battlefield and may have never taken up arms against the U.S., but have only been deemed to constitute an unspecified threat.”
With such totalitarian laws already in place, it is understandable why the Obama administration is not interested in pushing H.R. 1540.
“We have killed thousands of innocent civilians while attempting to target alleged operatives. And let’s not forget how frequently our intelligence has been wrong about alleged operatives. Five of my clients are all alleged to have been operatives based on Intel. In every case, Intel was incorrect. I don’t anticipate our Intel with respect to alleged American operatives will be any better,” said attorney George Mickum.
Constitutional scholar, Professor Francis Boyle, University of Illinois Law School, told IPS: “’This extra-judicial execution of human beings’ violates both international human rights law and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. constitution.”
In April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security, through Janet Napolitano, released a document to all federal and local authorities that included a lexicon of extremism types considered to be a terrorist threat. Here is a sampling of those considered to be a terrorist threat: Those who defend the U.S. Constitution, own a gun, are against the government, oppose abortion, are a war veteran, oppose the U.N., are a rightwing extremist, are anti-immigration, are a black separatists, are a white supremacist, are against the war, or believe in the fundamentals of the Bible.
For those of you who don’t belong to any of the above-mentioned groups or embrace similar ideals, fear not, the list is so broad and ambiguous anyone can be construed as a terrorist and a threat against the U.S.
As the Neo-cons shift the world into an Orwellian state of permanent War, they will continue to justify and extend the existence of this extremely profitable so-called War on Terror—at the taxpayer’s expense and the loss and maiming of our men and women. Hence, with huge profits, the war machine will convincingly rationalize the large-scale production of bombs and missiles and tanks and ships and aircraft and guns and ammunition, while simultaneously discounting the loss of human life. Likewise, military procurement will continue to flourish, and the Pentagon propaganda machine will continue to crank out compelling reasons to do so, whether they are authenticated or fabricated, whether they are genuine or false flag operations.
Now that we have accurate, clear and honest information, we must cease to be accomplices to these atrocities. We must put an end to these transgressions against the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness afforded by God to all human beings. But especially to Americans, because we have inalienable legal rights given to us in the U.S. Constitution. If we do not, then no man’s freedom, property, or life is safe.
Full article:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Duncan/al114.htm
More Info:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=61e9d0d1-581b-4204-ba0e-f601878bc710
By Al Duncan
May 20, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
Those who trade freedom for temporary safety deserve neither freedom nor safety. The opposite of freedom is slavery. The opposite of safety, in this context, is responsibility. Likewise, those who trade freedom for temporary wealth deserve neither wealth nor freedom. In every case, the opposite of freedom is slavery.
I understand that most do not have the time or the wherewithal to decipher the surge of local, national and international news transpiring daily, which is why God has provided “watchmen on the wall,” such as myself, to trumpet coming danger. However, once honest, clear and accurate information is presented, all responsibility then rests squarely upon the recipient.
We become accomplices to those atrocities we fail to oppose.
According to Pete Kasperowicz, writing for The Hill, May 11, 2011, “Nearly three-dozen House Democrats are calling on Republicans to withdraw a section of the 2012 defense authorization bill that they say would effectively declare a state of permanent war against unnamed Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.”
In a letter written to the House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), House Democrats are requesting him to immediately hold hearings on these proposals before including them in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). “Whatever one thinks of these various proposals in the Detainee Security Act, it is clear that they will have serious consequences and should be examined extensively. We therefore request that you use your chairmanship to immediately call hearings on Detainee Security Act so that the American people have an opportunity to consider the serious impacts that this legislation could have on our national security.”
However, Instead of considering the Democrats’ request, on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, McKeon has decided to hold a markup to grant committee approval of the bill.
The Democrats letter cites language in the authorization bill that incorporates the Detainee Security Act, which affirms continued armed conflict against terrorists overseas. The specific language in the bill is found in section 1034 of H.R. 1540.
The offending text (H.R. 1540 – section 1034) uses doublespeak to declare World War III. Specifically, the text uses the phrase “affirms” and “armed conflict” which is the same terminology used by congress to declare war in every confrontation since World War II.
Congress affirms that —
(1) the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces and that those entities continue to pose a threat to the U.S. and its citizens, both domestically and abroad;
(2) the President has the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note);
(3) the current armed conflict includes nations, organization, and persons who—
(A) are part of, or are substantially supporting, al Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or
(B) have engaged in hostilities or have directly supported hostilities in aid of a nation, organization, or person described in subparagraph (A);
(4) the President’s authority pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) includes the authority to detain belligerents, including persons described in paragraph three, until the termination of hostilities.
This legislation authorizes the President of the United States to take unilateral military action against all nations, organizations, and persons, both domestically and abroad, who are alleged to be currently or who have in the past supported or engaged in hostilities or who have provided aid in support of hostilities against the U.S. or any of its coalition allies.
The legislation removes the requirement of congressional approval for the use of military force and instead gives the President totalitarian dictatorial authority to engage in any and all military actions for an indefinite period of time.
It even gives the President the authority to launch attacks against American Citizens inside the U.S. with no congressional oversight whatsoever.
Therefore, the president would have full authority to invade Iran, Syria, North Korea, along with several other nations in Africa and the Middle East and even Russia and China under the legislation all of which are known to have supported and aided hostilities against the U.S.
Even the America Civil Liberties Union takes issue with this legislation. They write:
“A ‘sleeper provision’ deep inside defense bills pending before Congress could become the single biggest hand-over of unchecked war authority from Congress to the executive branch in modern American history.”
The ACLU continues, “Congress is considering monumental new legislation that would grant the president—and all presidents after him—sweeping new power to make war almost anywhere and everywhere. Unlike previous grants of authority for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the proposed legislation would allow a president to use military force wherever terrorism suspects are present in the world, regardless of whether there has been any harm to U.S. citizens, or any attack on the U.S., or any imminent threat of an attack. The legislation is broad enough to permit a president to use military force within the United States and against American citizens.
“Now, Congress is poised to give unchecked authority to the executive branch to use military force worldwide, with profoundly negative consequences for our fundamental democratic system of checks and balances. Once Congress expands the president’s war power, it will be nearly impossible to rein it back in. The ACLU strongly opposes a wholesale turnover of war power from Congress to the president—and all of his successors.”
Surprisingly, the Obama administration has made it clear that it already has all of the authority that it needs to fight terrorism. This confirms my belief that the perpetrators behind this declaration of constant worldwide war are the Neo-cons, the Military Industrial Complex and the Project for the New American Century. This also illustrates the magnitude of power these warmongering profiteers exert over our public representatives, in this case, principally the Republican Party.
Giving these warmongering profiteers the authority and the capability to militarily confront nations anywhere and peoples everywhere also gives them the menacing threat of total world dominance. Remember these wise axioms: “Power is not a means, it’s an end. The object of power is power,” (George Orwell, 1984) and "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," (Lord Acton).
The Posse Comitatus Act is a U.S. federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed June 18, 1878 (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807), limiting the federal government’s powers to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits most federal uniformed services from exercising state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property within the United States.
The military are trained to seek and kill. The Posse Comitatus Act prevented a President from using the military against American citizens within the U.S. In the past the local police department was an agency whose motto was to “protect and serve,” now, through the enticement of federal funds, they are being trained in military style tactics, with the American people being targeted as the enemy.
The John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act (PL 109-364) of 2006, Signed by President Bush on Oct. 17 2006, has a provision called “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies.” The new language adds “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident” to the list, thus permitting the President to take over local authority. It also broadened what constitutes “conspiracy,” to anyone who “has purposely and materially supported hostilities against the U.S.”
According to the Inter Press Service (IPS), February 5, 2010, “Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, acknowledged in a congressional hearing Wednesday that the U.S. may, with executive approval, deliberately target and kill U.S. citizens suspected of being involved in terrorism.
In essence, The Warner Act removes all restraints, giving the sitting president, whomever he or she may be, the power at his or her sole discretion to use the military against American citizens right here on U.S. soil.
Chip Pitts, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee president, related to IPS, “While Bush embraced indefinite detention, the Obama administration favors targeted extra-judicial killing—including of U.S. citizens—is a tragic legal, moral and practical mistake.”
Ben Wizner, ACLU attorney with the National Security Project, said, “It is alarming to hear that the Obama administration is asserting that the president can authorize the assassination of Americans, even if they are far from any battlefield and may have never taken up arms against the U.S., but have only been deemed to constitute an unspecified threat.”
With such totalitarian laws already in place, it is understandable why the Obama administration is not interested in pushing H.R. 1540.
“We have killed thousands of innocent civilians while attempting to target alleged operatives. And let’s not forget how frequently our intelligence has been wrong about alleged operatives. Five of my clients are all alleged to have been operatives based on Intel. In every case, Intel was incorrect. I don’t anticipate our Intel with respect to alleged American operatives will be any better,” said attorney George Mickum.
Constitutional scholar, Professor Francis Boyle, University of Illinois Law School, told IPS: “’This extra-judicial execution of human beings’ violates both international human rights law and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. constitution.”
In April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security, through Janet Napolitano, released a document to all federal and local authorities that included a lexicon of extremism types considered to be a terrorist threat. Here is a sampling of those considered to be a terrorist threat: Those who defend the U.S. Constitution, own a gun, are against the government, oppose abortion, are a war veteran, oppose the U.N., are a rightwing extremist, are anti-immigration, are a black separatists, are a white supremacist, are against the war, or believe in the fundamentals of the Bible.
For those of you who don’t belong to any of the above-mentioned groups or embrace similar ideals, fear not, the list is so broad and ambiguous anyone can be construed as a terrorist and a threat against the U.S.
As the Neo-cons shift the world into an Orwellian state of permanent War, they will continue to justify and extend the existence of this extremely profitable so-called War on Terror—at the taxpayer’s expense and the loss and maiming of our men and women. Hence, with huge profits, the war machine will convincingly rationalize the large-scale production of bombs and missiles and tanks and ships and aircraft and guns and ammunition, while simultaneously discounting the loss of human life. Likewise, military procurement will continue to flourish, and the Pentagon propaganda machine will continue to crank out compelling reasons to do so, whether they are authenticated or fabricated, whether they are genuine or false flag operations.
Now that we have accurate, clear and honest information, we must cease to be accomplices to these atrocities. We must put an end to these transgressions against the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness afforded by God to all human beings. But especially to Americans, because we have inalienable legal rights given to us in the U.S. Constitution. If we do not, then no man’s freedom, property, or life is safe.
Full article:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Duncan/al114.htm
More Info:
http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=61e9d0d1-581b-4204-ba0e-f601878bc710
Pillow Prophets
By David Wilkerson
Ezekiel stood alone against all the false prophets of Israel. These prophets would have nothing to do with the message of righteousness and impending judgment. Instead, they prophesied an era of peace, ease and prosperity.
Ezekiel 13 is the very word of Jehovah against preachers and prophets who accommodate people with flesh pleasing words they said were from the Lord. Their words were designed to make God's people comfortable in the face of impending judgment.
In fact, they were not satisfied to prophesy good times ahead from their great houses and ivory beds of ease -- they sought to provide a pillow for every elbow (Ezekiel 13:18). "Woe to those who apply pillows unto all elbows..." (Original Hebrew by Spurrell) "...Behold, I am against your pillows wherewith ye entice souls..." (Ezekiel 13:20).
Ezekiel was horrified at the sight of prophets who had developed an art of making God's people comfortable. The Lord had said, "My people have set up idols in their hearts; they are brazenly setting up stumbling blocks in iniquity; they are all estranged from me because of their idols" (Ezekiel 14:1-5).
The true word of the Lord was, "Jehovah says -- eat your bread with trembling, and drink thy water with grieving and fainting -- and say unto the people, her land shall be emptied of its fullness, because of the violence -- cities will be laid waste, the land made desolate -- there shall be no more vain visions or flattering prophecies" (Ezekiel 12:17-24).
While Ezekiel went about calling the people to humility and repentance, trying to prepare God's people for the soon coming judgments, these pillow prophets went about prophesying the dreams and imaginations of their own hearts. God had not spoken to them, even though they prefaced their predictions with, "Hear the Word of the Lord." God said, "I did not send them: they do not speak for Me.
They carried with them fancy pillows to place under every elbow for all who flocked to hear their false prophecies. They placed handkerchiefs on the heads of every one of their disciples, a statement to others that meant, "Nothing but good times ahead. I see nothing ahead but peace and luxury." They walked among the poor and sick, with a lace kerchief on the head, as a sign of their confidence in the message of the prophets of self indulgence and comfort.
Ezekiel thundered the Word of God at them, as the masses congregated to hear their pleasant words.
"You see for God's people a vision of prosperity, when there is no prosperity, saith the Lord Jehovah" (Ezekiel 13:16, Spurrell).
"You follow after your own imagination - when actually you have seen nothing." (Ezekiel 13:3).
The pillow prophets are still with us! They talk about the Word of God, about prophecy, and they salt their soothing messages with a lot of Scripture. But there is a falseness in what they preach. They are not preaching the Cross or holiness and separation. They make no demands on their followers. They seldom speak of sin and judgment. They abhor the very mention of suffering and pain. To them, the heroes of Hebrews were faithless cowards and penniless losers who were afraid to claim their rights.
Like the pillow prophets of Israel, their one supreme desire is to promote luxurious lifestyles and make people comfortable in their pursuit of the good life. They are not speaking for God. All they are doing is passing out pillows. One for every elbow of every follower. No wonder the crowds flock to sit under their message -- it's painless. There is not the call of Christ to deny self and take up a cross.
What is the difference between pillow prophets and Jehovah's true prophets? The preacher or parishioner who doesn't know the difference is on dangerous ground. With so many going about gathering huge followings, it is imperative to have Holy Ghost discernment. The confused prophets must be exposed by truth. Most of them and sound like sincere, Bible loving men of God. But the Lord has given His people infallible tests to prove what is true and what is false. We are to test every man and every message -- by the whole Word of God.
Let me bring to your attention three characteristics of a true prophet of God.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. A true man of God is consumed with a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He has been so overwhelmed, so mastered by that glorious vision, he can speak of nothing else. He preaches the whole counsel of God -- as it relates to Christ.
God said of the false prophets, "Woe unto the deceiving prophets who follow after their own imaginations... they have seen nothing" (Ezekiel 13:3).
Yet of Moses, it was said "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible" (Hebrew 11:27).
Jesus said of Abraham, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:5-6).
Stephen had a glorious vision of Him. "And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:5-6).
Ananias said to Paul, "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth" (Acts 22:14).
To His own disciples, Jesus said, "In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see Me" (John 14:17).
The one thing every one of these men of God had in common was their life-controlling vision of Christ the Lord. Christ was the great and only cause in their life. They saw Him through the eye of faith.
Moses willingly forsook the ease and prosperity of Egypt to suffer privation in a wilderness because he had been mastered by a vision of Christ. Nothing else mattered now, not even his dream of becoming a great deliverer He saw beyond all human ambition. He was weaned from all that was earthly because he had seen Christ. He could endure anything, for nothing on earth could compare with what his spiritual eyes beheld.
Abraham became totally detached from this world and willingly became a foreigner on earth, for his eyes were fixed on a city whose builder and maker was God. But best of all, he had seen a vision of Christ on His throne in that holy city. Never again would he settle for things temporal or earthly. His faith was built upon his continual vision of Christ. He rejoiced and was glad, for he had eyes for the invisible, the eternal, Christ!
The moment Paul saw Him everything else on earth became dung to him. The very moment Christ was revealed in him, he determined to know nothing else among men but his Lord. He gladly endured hardships, shipwreck, stoning, beatings, privations, imprisonment; none of these things moved him because he gloried in his vision of the Lord.
Any man of God who is tied to this earth or the things of earth has seen nothing. If he had a vision of Christ, if he was in constant union with Christ, he could preach of nothing else. He would stand before the crowds, proclaiming, "I count it all loss -- it's all dung! It is Christ and Him alone. He is all; He fills all things. He is my very life."
Like Isaiah, the true man of God who sees the Lord, high and lifted up, will fall on his face and weep over his sins and the sins of God's people. Then he will be purged and go forth in the power of his awesome vision to preach Christ.
God warned Israel, "The prophets are like foxes..." In other words, some have no single eye focused on Christ alone, but they have eyes filled with covetousness. They spoil the vine, taking the best for themselves. They go their own way, feeding their own egos!
These self-seeking prophets claimed to have heard from God. Theirs, they claimed, was a prophetic word directly from heaven. "They say, Jehovah saith, when Jehovah hath not sent them, and they caused others to hope that their word would be verified" (Ezekiel 13:6).
The multitudes of God's people who run about to hear only soothing messages need to take a second honest look at what they are hearing and believing.
"Have ye not seen a deceiving vision and spoken a lying divination when you said Jehovah saith whereas I have not spoken" (Ezekiel 13:7)
"They have seduced my people, saying, Peace, when there was not peace" (Ezekiel 13:10).
Their message was, "God told me all is well. No trouble ahead. Good times! No trial or tribulation. God's desire is that all be happy, prosperous and at ease.... " Jehovah calls that deception! I don't think ministers are taking seriously enough the tragedy of preaching the wrong message. How dare we preach peace and endless good times to a nation and a people on the brink of judgment!
Israel's sin was about to explode in unbelievable fires of divine wrath. Ezekiel did not want to preach such a disturbing message, especially to a people who had heaped to themselves pillow prophets who went about telling God's people that all was well.
Listen to what God was trying to say to His people. "Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: like as the wood of the vine amongst the trees of the forest, which I have given unto the fire to devour, so have I given the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will set my face against them: from one fire shall they escape that another fire may devour them.... I have set my face against them.... I will make this land desolate, because they have trespassed a trespass, saith the Lord Jehovah" (Ezekiel 15: 6-8, Spurrell).
The people rejected the true Word of God. The masses ran off after their favorite teachers to hear the deceptive message -- "God is not that kind of God. He desires only the best for us all. Great peace and good times lay ahead. Don't listen to the old prophets of doom. God told me, right from His throne room that the best is yet to come."
I ask you, what will those pillow prophets do when God begins to judge the sins of this nation and cut off its bread and its fullness? Think of the unprepared multitudes of sincere Christians who should be repenting of lukewarmness; who should be weeping because of compromise and covetousness; who should be forsaking all rather than accumulating.
Thank God the Holy Spirit is raising up a holy people who are sick of all the self-centered ministries, and their cry is, "We would see Jesus" The man-centered gospel cannot last much longer. A time of purging is ahead. We are heading into refining fires. While the covetous lounge on their beds of ease and comfort themselves with luxuries, a remnant will break away and go out seeking the Bridegroom. Christ is going to reveal Himself to the humble, the poor in spirit, and the true Word of the Lord will flow forth with unction and power. Union with Christ will become the pearl of great price.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. The true man of God preaches and practices self denial.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compare this with what the pillow prophets focus on! God said of them, "They pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley, and for morsels of bread... they lie to my people" (Ezekiel 13:19). A modern translation is, "These pillow prophets have money on their minds. It has made liars of them." Here is the full picture of a pillow prophet. He lets his imagination run wild. He operates on the idea that prosperity will last forever. He builds on dreams and schemes. To do it, he needs money -- lots of it. His need for money becomes the focus of ministry. He ends up telling lies to God's people to get it. Then he pollutes it all by saying, "God told me"
The message of Jesus Christ is painfully blunt -- deny yourself and take up your cross.
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
Self denial -- what a foreign sounding concept in this day of self-pampering and ease. The pillow prophets have rejected it flat out. Self denial is the giving up and forsaking of all and everything that hinders the constant presence of Christ.
There is no merit in self denial. We are saved and secured by grace alone. It is not to be entered into to earn benefits from God. But self denial removes hindrances to constant communion with Christ. Paul said, "I bring my body under... and bring it under subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27).
We are not bringing our bodies under control; our passions and appetites are not under subjection. Sensuous television programs now whet the appetites among Christians for pornography. Lust is nearly out of control, even in the ministry. Almost daily I hear of ministers that are spending hours viewing X-rated movies and cassettes.
Multitudes of God's people, including preachers of the gospel, waste precious hours lounging before the TV idol. Like Lot, our minds are getting vexed by the things we see and hear.
Food is becoming the narcotic of believers. We don't need cocaine or alcohol -- we have a legalized sedative -- food. Never in all my ministry have I seen so many Christians with appetites out of control.
The deepest truth about self denial goes beyond giving up material things. You can sell your TV, shun all erotic sights and sounds, and bring all appetites under control, and still not have denied self.
What Christ is calling for is a kind of devotion to Himself that expels everything in the heart that hinders. It is a commitment to becoming absolutely nothing before God and man. It is being able to say with Paul, "I no longer live-- it is Christ living in me.
The world must lose its charm to us. We must die to all self ambition -- to all attachments to earthly things, until we can honestly say, "I am dead to this world and all it represents. I no longer live."
Physically alive, yes! But I must die to all that hinders my vision and love for Christ. Whatever it is -- it must go. Lust? Self-made plans? Bitterness, grudges? Recognition, self esteem? I must die to it all. I must bring it all to the cross and execute self judgment.
Why is it that Christians who are about to die become so detached from the world and material and physical things? Because eternity is in view. It all pales in comparison to the joy ahead. Why can't we live like that all the time? Why not keep our minds fixed on Christ at all times?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. A true man of God has a holy boldness against sin -- he never whitewashes evil.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pillow prophets have no foundation of holiness upon which to build. Ezekiel said, "Their foundation thereof shall be discovered." (13:14).
The pillow prophets were building walls with untempered mortar and painting the flaws over with whitewash. Worst of all, their message and manner "grieved the hearts of the righteous because of their falsehoods" (Ezekiel 13:22).
And they "strengthened the hands of the wicked." God accused them of damning souls by ignoring sin. It grieved God that compromising children of God were being encouraged rather than exposed. Lightness about sin only confirmed them in their compromising.
God will not let any minister of the gospel grieve or trouble His chosen and devoted ones without His express permission. But neither will He permit prophets of ease to call evil good and pamper backslidden Christians who need to repent.
Certainly we are called to proclaim the gospel of grace, mercy and pardon. But the man of God is also commanded to "Lift up his voice, cry aloud, and spare not -- showing my people their sins."
Could it be we can't lift up a holy standard because of corruption in our own hearts? Have our own sins robbed us of holy boldness? Do we wink at the sins of others because of besetting sins in our hearts?
Do you know of a man of God who boldly thunders against sin? Does his message ring, not of legalism, but of deep personal purity? Then run to his feet -- sit under his message, for he has the truth that will set you free. He is the true prophet of God, and he makes all other prophets tremble and fear. The pillow prophets despise him because he walks with truth in the inward parts.
Seek out a man of God who makes Christ real! One who makes you sit up and take notice that he has been with Jesus. One who convicts you for wasting time and for becoming earthly minded. One who will point a finger in your face, discern sin, and cry out, "Thou art the man " He is the one who truly loves you and looks out for your soul.
The pillow prophets are building their huge walls. They look very successful and blessed. But Jehovah says, "Your walls shall fall. I will bring it all down with my stormy wind. I will demolish your wall and level it to the ground" (Ezekiel 13:11-14).
God has told us that in these last days our young men shall see visions. Not of success, of prosperity or of great achievements. There will be but one vision for all -- CHRIST!
Ezekiel stood alone against all the false prophets of Israel. These prophets would have nothing to do with the message of righteousness and impending judgment. Instead, they prophesied an era of peace, ease and prosperity.
Ezekiel 13 is the very word of Jehovah against preachers and prophets who accommodate people with flesh pleasing words they said were from the Lord. Their words were designed to make God's people comfortable in the face of impending judgment.
In fact, they were not satisfied to prophesy good times ahead from their great houses and ivory beds of ease -- they sought to provide a pillow for every elbow (Ezekiel 13:18). "Woe to those who apply pillows unto all elbows..." (Original Hebrew by Spurrell) "...Behold, I am against your pillows wherewith ye entice souls..." (Ezekiel 13:20).
Ezekiel was horrified at the sight of prophets who had developed an art of making God's people comfortable. The Lord had said, "My people have set up idols in their hearts; they are brazenly setting up stumbling blocks in iniquity; they are all estranged from me because of their idols" (Ezekiel 14:1-5).
The true word of the Lord was, "Jehovah says -- eat your bread with trembling, and drink thy water with grieving and fainting -- and say unto the people, her land shall be emptied of its fullness, because of the violence -- cities will be laid waste, the land made desolate -- there shall be no more vain visions or flattering prophecies" (Ezekiel 12:17-24).
While Ezekiel went about calling the people to humility and repentance, trying to prepare God's people for the soon coming judgments, these pillow prophets went about prophesying the dreams and imaginations of their own hearts. God had not spoken to them, even though they prefaced their predictions with, "Hear the Word of the Lord." God said, "I did not send them: they do not speak for Me.
They carried with them fancy pillows to place under every elbow for all who flocked to hear their false prophecies. They placed handkerchiefs on the heads of every one of their disciples, a statement to others that meant, "Nothing but good times ahead. I see nothing ahead but peace and luxury." They walked among the poor and sick, with a lace kerchief on the head, as a sign of their confidence in the message of the prophets of self indulgence and comfort.
Ezekiel thundered the Word of God at them, as the masses congregated to hear their pleasant words.
"You see for God's people a vision of prosperity, when there is no prosperity, saith the Lord Jehovah" (Ezekiel 13:16, Spurrell).
"You follow after your own imagination - when actually you have seen nothing." (Ezekiel 13:3).
The pillow prophets are still with us! They talk about the Word of God, about prophecy, and they salt their soothing messages with a lot of Scripture. But there is a falseness in what they preach. They are not preaching the Cross or holiness and separation. They make no demands on their followers. They seldom speak of sin and judgment. They abhor the very mention of suffering and pain. To them, the heroes of Hebrews were faithless cowards and penniless losers who were afraid to claim their rights.
Like the pillow prophets of Israel, their one supreme desire is to promote luxurious lifestyles and make people comfortable in their pursuit of the good life. They are not speaking for God. All they are doing is passing out pillows. One for every elbow of every follower. No wonder the crowds flock to sit under their message -- it's painless. There is not the call of Christ to deny self and take up a cross.
What is the difference between pillow prophets and Jehovah's true prophets? The preacher or parishioner who doesn't know the difference is on dangerous ground. With so many going about gathering huge followings, it is imperative to have Holy Ghost discernment. The confused prophets must be exposed by truth. Most of them and sound like sincere, Bible loving men of God. But the Lord has given His people infallible tests to prove what is true and what is false. We are to test every man and every message -- by the whole Word of God.
Let me bring to your attention three characteristics of a true prophet of God.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. A true man of God is consumed with a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He has been so overwhelmed, so mastered by that glorious vision, he can speak of nothing else. He preaches the whole counsel of God -- as it relates to Christ.
God said of the false prophets, "Woe unto the deceiving prophets who follow after their own imaginations... they have seen nothing" (Ezekiel 13:3).
Yet of Moses, it was said "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible" (Hebrew 11:27).
Jesus said of Abraham, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:5-6).
Stephen had a glorious vision of Him. "And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:5-6).
Ananias said to Paul, "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth" (Acts 22:14).
To His own disciples, Jesus said, "In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see Me" (John 14:17).
The one thing every one of these men of God had in common was their life-controlling vision of Christ the Lord. Christ was the great and only cause in their life. They saw Him through the eye of faith.
Moses willingly forsook the ease and prosperity of Egypt to suffer privation in a wilderness because he had been mastered by a vision of Christ. Nothing else mattered now, not even his dream of becoming a great deliverer He saw beyond all human ambition. He was weaned from all that was earthly because he had seen Christ. He could endure anything, for nothing on earth could compare with what his spiritual eyes beheld.
Abraham became totally detached from this world and willingly became a foreigner on earth, for his eyes were fixed on a city whose builder and maker was God. But best of all, he had seen a vision of Christ on His throne in that holy city. Never again would he settle for things temporal or earthly. His faith was built upon his continual vision of Christ. He rejoiced and was glad, for he had eyes for the invisible, the eternal, Christ!
The moment Paul saw Him everything else on earth became dung to him. The very moment Christ was revealed in him, he determined to know nothing else among men but his Lord. He gladly endured hardships, shipwreck, stoning, beatings, privations, imprisonment; none of these things moved him because he gloried in his vision of the Lord.
Any man of God who is tied to this earth or the things of earth has seen nothing. If he had a vision of Christ, if he was in constant union with Christ, he could preach of nothing else. He would stand before the crowds, proclaiming, "I count it all loss -- it's all dung! It is Christ and Him alone. He is all; He fills all things. He is my very life."
Like Isaiah, the true man of God who sees the Lord, high and lifted up, will fall on his face and weep over his sins and the sins of God's people. Then he will be purged and go forth in the power of his awesome vision to preach Christ.
God warned Israel, "The prophets are like foxes..." In other words, some have no single eye focused on Christ alone, but they have eyes filled with covetousness. They spoil the vine, taking the best for themselves. They go their own way, feeding their own egos!
These self-seeking prophets claimed to have heard from God. Theirs, they claimed, was a prophetic word directly from heaven. "They say, Jehovah saith, when Jehovah hath not sent them, and they caused others to hope that their word would be verified" (Ezekiel 13:6).
The multitudes of God's people who run about to hear only soothing messages need to take a second honest look at what they are hearing and believing.
"Have ye not seen a deceiving vision and spoken a lying divination when you said Jehovah saith whereas I have not spoken" (Ezekiel 13:7)
"They have seduced my people, saying, Peace, when there was not peace" (Ezekiel 13:10).
Their message was, "God told me all is well. No trouble ahead. Good times! No trial or tribulation. God's desire is that all be happy, prosperous and at ease.... " Jehovah calls that deception! I don't think ministers are taking seriously enough the tragedy of preaching the wrong message. How dare we preach peace and endless good times to a nation and a people on the brink of judgment!
Israel's sin was about to explode in unbelievable fires of divine wrath. Ezekiel did not want to preach such a disturbing message, especially to a people who had heaped to themselves pillow prophets who went about telling God's people that all was well.
Listen to what God was trying to say to His people. "Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: like as the wood of the vine amongst the trees of the forest, which I have given unto the fire to devour, so have I given the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will set my face against them: from one fire shall they escape that another fire may devour them.... I have set my face against them.... I will make this land desolate, because they have trespassed a trespass, saith the Lord Jehovah" (Ezekiel 15: 6-8, Spurrell).
The people rejected the true Word of God. The masses ran off after their favorite teachers to hear the deceptive message -- "God is not that kind of God. He desires only the best for us all. Great peace and good times lay ahead. Don't listen to the old prophets of doom. God told me, right from His throne room that the best is yet to come."
I ask you, what will those pillow prophets do when God begins to judge the sins of this nation and cut off its bread and its fullness? Think of the unprepared multitudes of sincere Christians who should be repenting of lukewarmness; who should be weeping because of compromise and covetousness; who should be forsaking all rather than accumulating.
Thank God the Holy Spirit is raising up a holy people who are sick of all the self-centered ministries, and their cry is, "We would see Jesus" The man-centered gospel cannot last much longer. A time of purging is ahead. We are heading into refining fires. While the covetous lounge on their beds of ease and comfort themselves with luxuries, a remnant will break away and go out seeking the Bridegroom. Christ is going to reveal Himself to the humble, the poor in spirit, and the true Word of the Lord will flow forth with unction and power. Union with Christ will become the pearl of great price.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. The true man of God preaches and practices self denial.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compare this with what the pillow prophets focus on! God said of them, "They pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley, and for morsels of bread... they lie to my people" (Ezekiel 13:19). A modern translation is, "These pillow prophets have money on their minds. It has made liars of them." Here is the full picture of a pillow prophet. He lets his imagination run wild. He operates on the idea that prosperity will last forever. He builds on dreams and schemes. To do it, he needs money -- lots of it. His need for money becomes the focus of ministry. He ends up telling lies to God's people to get it. Then he pollutes it all by saying, "God told me"
The message of Jesus Christ is painfully blunt -- deny yourself and take up your cross.
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
Self denial -- what a foreign sounding concept in this day of self-pampering and ease. The pillow prophets have rejected it flat out. Self denial is the giving up and forsaking of all and everything that hinders the constant presence of Christ.
There is no merit in self denial. We are saved and secured by grace alone. It is not to be entered into to earn benefits from God. But self denial removes hindrances to constant communion with Christ. Paul said, "I bring my body under... and bring it under subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27).
We are not bringing our bodies under control; our passions and appetites are not under subjection. Sensuous television programs now whet the appetites among Christians for pornography. Lust is nearly out of control, even in the ministry. Almost daily I hear of ministers that are spending hours viewing X-rated movies and cassettes.
Multitudes of God's people, including preachers of the gospel, waste precious hours lounging before the TV idol. Like Lot, our minds are getting vexed by the things we see and hear.
Food is becoming the narcotic of believers. We don't need cocaine or alcohol -- we have a legalized sedative -- food. Never in all my ministry have I seen so many Christians with appetites out of control.
The deepest truth about self denial goes beyond giving up material things. You can sell your TV, shun all erotic sights and sounds, and bring all appetites under control, and still not have denied self.
What Christ is calling for is a kind of devotion to Himself that expels everything in the heart that hinders. It is a commitment to becoming absolutely nothing before God and man. It is being able to say with Paul, "I no longer live-- it is Christ living in me.
The world must lose its charm to us. We must die to all self ambition -- to all attachments to earthly things, until we can honestly say, "I am dead to this world and all it represents. I no longer live."
Physically alive, yes! But I must die to all that hinders my vision and love for Christ. Whatever it is -- it must go. Lust? Self-made plans? Bitterness, grudges? Recognition, self esteem? I must die to it all. I must bring it all to the cross and execute self judgment.
Why is it that Christians who are about to die become so detached from the world and material and physical things? Because eternity is in view. It all pales in comparison to the joy ahead. Why can't we live like that all the time? Why not keep our minds fixed on Christ at all times?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. A true man of God has a holy boldness against sin -- he never whitewashes evil.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pillow prophets have no foundation of holiness upon which to build. Ezekiel said, "Their foundation thereof shall be discovered." (13:14).
The pillow prophets were building walls with untempered mortar and painting the flaws over with whitewash. Worst of all, their message and manner "grieved the hearts of the righteous because of their falsehoods" (Ezekiel 13:22).
And they "strengthened the hands of the wicked." God accused them of damning souls by ignoring sin. It grieved God that compromising children of God were being encouraged rather than exposed. Lightness about sin only confirmed them in their compromising.
God will not let any minister of the gospel grieve or trouble His chosen and devoted ones without His express permission. But neither will He permit prophets of ease to call evil good and pamper backslidden Christians who need to repent.
Certainly we are called to proclaim the gospel of grace, mercy and pardon. But the man of God is also commanded to "Lift up his voice, cry aloud, and spare not -- showing my people their sins."
Could it be we can't lift up a holy standard because of corruption in our own hearts? Have our own sins robbed us of holy boldness? Do we wink at the sins of others because of besetting sins in our hearts?
Do you know of a man of God who boldly thunders against sin? Does his message ring, not of legalism, but of deep personal purity? Then run to his feet -- sit under his message, for he has the truth that will set you free. He is the true prophet of God, and he makes all other prophets tremble and fear. The pillow prophets despise him because he walks with truth in the inward parts.
Seek out a man of God who makes Christ real! One who makes you sit up and take notice that he has been with Jesus. One who convicts you for wasting time and for becoming earthly minded. One who will point a finger in your face, discern sin, and cry out, "Thou art the man " He is the one who truly loves you and looks out for your soul.
The pillow prophets are building their huge walls. They look very successful and blessed. But Jehovah says, "Your walls shall fall. I will bring it all down with my stormy wind. I will demolish your wall and level it to the ground" (Ezekiel 13:11-14).
God has told us that in these last days our young men shall see visions. Not of success, of prosperity or of great achievements. There will be but one vision for all -- CHRIST!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
CHURCHES ARE SPREADING MAD COW DISEASE
"I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is Good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great."
-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
By Coach Dave Doubenmire
January 8, 2004
NewsWithViews.com
What is all of the fuss about? Mad cow disease is nothing new. It has been poisoning America for years.
It is an insidious disease, scientists tell us, attacking the central nervous system. The results are not immediate, sometimes taking years to manifest, but the results are devastating. It slowly hinders ones ability to think, leading eventually to dementia and the total loss of the power to reason.
"Is our meat supply safe?" the headlines ask. Can you trust Wendy’s and McDonalds? Can you be sure that the meat at your local grocery is not tainted? Just to be safe, maybe it would be wise to stop eating meat.
Perhaps we should ask pastors the same questions. Is the meat they are serving us safe?
The Church, for generations the central nervous system of America, has been ravaged by Mad Cow. Once the safe-guard of our nation, she has lost her ability to reason. How else can you explain the inability to distinguish those who are churched from those who are not? Dementia is running rampant because we have been fed a contaminated Gospel.
Hebrews 5-14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The disease infected us quietly. Despite the firm warning of some of our veteran chefs, our seminaries were turning out a new breed of cooks, with fancy recipes for a new casserole. It looked good, it tasted fine, and it appeared to have no negative effects on those who ate it. America, we were told, was ready for a new dish, one that could be easily prepared in the micro wave, and we liked this new chef. He seemed like such a nice man. Certainly he would not give us tainted food.
Many pastors were leery at first, holding fast to older, proven methods, warning about the dangers of feeding people this rotten flesh. But gradually, as they began to watch those short-order cooks who served this meat grow larger churches, the temptation became too great. This new, improved hamburger helper, flavored not with salt, but with the spices of diversity and tolerance, looked and smelled the same. But it was easier to digest than the food the pastors use to serve and it required almost no chewing. Seven course meals were out and fast food was in. Three points and a poem replaced fire and brimstone.
"Feed my sheep", Jesus said. So the churches did. The new, seeker-friendly menu was great for business. The cafeteria was full, and more customers were coming every week. A generation starving for spiritual nourishment was being spoon fed poison meat.
Consider the entrees these enlightened chefs served.
"Jesus loves you in spite of your sin. He will be your best buddy"
"Divorce is okay because God wants you to be happy"
"Jesus died to deliver you from poverty. He wants you rich"
"God made you gay. He loves you and so do we"
"Abortion isn’t murder. It is a difficult choice between a woman and her Dr."
"Open hearts, open doors, open minds"
"Who are you to judge?"
"All religions are the same. People just have different names for God."
Sort of makes your stomach growl, doesn't it?
Pardon my cold-heartedness PETA, but the chickens have come home to roost.
Someone call the FDA! Some pastors are spreading Mad Cow disease and America is losing her mind!
Check the symptoms. Gays want to marry and churches bless the union. In fact, we now have gays offering the sacraments. MOO!
Fifty percent of all Christian marriages end in divorce and the Church crows about defending the sanctity of that union. MOO!
We have condoms to prevent disease and abortion to prevent children. MOO!
We educate our kids in Godless schools but rave about their sports program. MOO!
But why worry? Our attendance is up and so is the Dow. Things are looking better.
Mad Cow has taken over. We are losing our minds.
In the area where I live Amish food is gaining popularity. Restaurants serving "Home-style cooking" have customers standing in line. Sick of fast food and microwave dinners Americans are finding something of value in the old ways of cooking. It has a more lasting taste, and as Grandma used to say, it "sticks to your ribs".
We need a new diet. The time has come when pastors must feed the flock something that "sticks to the ribs". Years of greasy Grace have lead to a dazzling showcase but an empty stockroom. Rewrite the menu and include some old family basics.
"The soul that sins, it shall die"
"God hates the workers of iniquity".
"In righteousness He doth judge and make war."
"Be not deceived for God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap."
"Be ye Holy, for I am Holy".
Alexis de Tocqueville is credited with having said:
"I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is Good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great."
Any nutritionists will tell you "You are what you eat." America, look in the mirror. Do you like what you see?
Mooo!
Full article:
http://www.newswithviews.com/religion/religion26.htm
-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
By Coach Dave Doubenmire
January 8, 2004
NewsWithViews.com
What is all of the fuss about? Mad cow disease is nothing new. It has been poisoning America for years.
It is an insidious disease, scientists tell us, attacking the central nervous system. The results are not immediate, sometimes taking years to manifest, but the results are devastating. It slowly hinders ones ability to think, leading eventually to dementia and the total loss of the power to reason.
"Is our meat supply safe?" the headlines ask. Can you trust Wendy’s and McDonalds? Can you be sure that the meat at your local grocery is not tainted? Just to be safe, maybe it would be wise to stop eating meat.
Perhaps we should ask pastors the same questions. Is the meat they are serving us safe?
The Church, for generations the central nervous system of America, has been ravaged by Mad Cow. Once the safe-guard of our nation, she has lost her ability to reason. How else can you explain the inability to distinguish those who are churched from those who are not? Dementia is running rampant because we have been fed a contaminated Gospel.
Hebrews 5-14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The disease infected us quietly. Despite the firm warning of some of our veteran chefs, our seminaries were turning out a new breed of cooks, with fancy recipes for a new casserole. It looked good, it tasted fine, and it appeared to have no negative effects on those who ate it. America, we were told, was ready for a new dish, one that could be easily prepared in the micro wave, and we liked this new chef. He seemed like such a nice man. Certainly he would not give us tainted food.
Many pastors were leery at first, holding fast to older, proven methods, warning about the dangers of feeding people this rotten flesh. But gradually, as they began to watch those short-order cooks who served this meat grow larger churches, the temptation became too great. This new, improved hamburger helper, flavored not with salt, but with the spices of diversity and tolerance, looked and smelled the same. But it was easier to digest than the food the pastors use to serve and it required almost no chewing. Seven course meals were out and fast food was in. Three points and a poem replaced fire and brimstone.
"Feed my sheep", Jesus said. So the churches did. The new, seeker-friendly menu was great for business. The cafeteria was full, and more customers were coming every week. A generation starving for spiritual nourishment was being spoon fed poison meat.
Consider the entrees these enlightened chefs served.
"Jesus loves you in spite of your sin. He will be your best buddy"
"Divorce is okay because God wants you to be happy"
"Jesus died to deliver you from poverty. He wants you rich"
"God made you gay. He loves you and so do we"
"Abortion isn’t murder. It is a difficult choice between a woman and her Dr."
"Open hearts, open doors, open minds"
"Who are you to judge?"
"All religions are the same. People just have different names for God."
Sort of makes your stomach growl, doesn't it?
Pardon my cold-heartedness PETA, but the chickens have come home to roost.
Someone call the FDA! Some pastors are spreading Mad Cow disease and America is losing her mind!
Check the symptoms. Gays want to marry and churches bless the union. In fact, we now have gays offering the sacraments. MOO!
Fifty percent of all Christian marriages end in divorce and the Church crows about defending the sanctity of that union. MOO!
We have condoms to prevent disease and abortion to prevent children. MOO!
We educate our kids in Godless schools but rave about their sports program. MOO!
But why worry? Our attendance is up and so is the Dow. Things are looking better.
Mad Cow has taken over. We are losing our minds.
In the area where I live Amish food is gaining popularity. Restaurants serving "Home-style cooking" have customers standing in line. Sick of fast food and microwave dinners Americans are finding something of value in the old ways of cooking. It has a more lasting taste, and as Grandma used to say, it "sticks to your ribs".
We need a new diet. The time has come when pastors must feed the flock something that "sticks to the ribs". Years of greasy Grace have lead to a dazzling showcase but an empty stockroom. Rewrite the menu and include some old family basics.
"The soul that sins, it shall die"
"God hates the workers of iniquity".
"In righteousness He doth judge and make war."
"Be not deceived for God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap."
"Be ye Holy, for I am Holy".
Alexis de Tocqueville is credited with having said:
"I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is Good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great."
Any nutritionists will tell you "You are what you eat." America, look in the mirror. Do you like what you see?
Mooo!
Full article:
http://www.newswithviews.com/religion/religion26.htm
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