The Conservatarian

Normally, I do not post overtly religious content on this blog, but I feel compelled to do so today. I do it without apology, because as a Christian, I feel I need to make a stand for right and wrong, and declare the standards our God has laid before us.

The Sin:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Hanuman_idol_for_Obama/articleshow/3160730.cms 

 Psalm 33:12-22 12  ¶Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 14  From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15  He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works. 16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. 18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; 19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. 21  For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. 22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

 The Warning:

If this unrepentant Obama is elected, it will be an abomination, and the people will bring God’s wrath upon themselves. However, God is right in His judgments, and He does all things well. Perhaps God will use this foolish man to bring about a restoration of the country to Him. However, if He does, it will take a long time, and we will suffer for a while, but may He receive glory for it. God desires righteousness, and He tells us that “righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). It isn’t unreasonable to believe probably half, and likely more than half, of the voting population in this country supports Obama. If so, then as a nation we are guilty of the same thing the church at Galatia was guilty of- returning to false gods and going back to bondage. The Apostle Paul said this:

 ¶Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? (Galatians 4:8,9).

We will be turned to bondage very shortly. God tapped us on the shoulder with 9/11, and he is tapping us on the shoulder again with the floods in the Midwest, fires in Florida, fires in California, earthquakes everywhere, droughts last year, high fuel costs, high food costs, and economic woes. Tolerance is preached, but Christians are persecuted in other countries. Soon, American preachers will be sent to jail over the words they preach, and it will be under the guise of hate crime legislation. Globally, we are having volcanic activity, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Plague and pestilence are making a return with antibiotic resistant drugs, just to name a few things. Gaiaism (earth worship) in the form of global warming/climate change legislation is upon us. The fools of this world err, not knowing the scriptures which tell us “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:22). 

The Hope:

God’s people must continue to be lights in this fallen world. Let us proclaim the message of freedom and hope that is found in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All the things I have written here are already written in the scriptures. Keep in mind, however, that God gives grace to His people. Let us stand in the hope of the glory of God, for Christ is soon returning. We would do well to realize it is most likely, and almost certainly going to get rough before He does. Remember the words of our Savior- when you see these things beginning, look up, for your redemption draws near!

Let us keep in mind, however, our responsibility as believers in Christ, that we have an obligation to pray for our leaders. If Mr. Obama is elected President, I will pray for God to grant him wisdom to lead our country. I pray he will be turned to Christ in the real sense of faith and repentance of his sin, and be redeemed. I will also pray that this idol that is being sent to him will somehow be lost or destoyed. Let us also pray that through all these things, we can see the hand of God move in our country, and that He will be glorified. Keep your heads held high, fellow believers, for God is still in control!

I received this article in an email the other day. Mr. DeMar lays down the law to a reader/critic who refuses to acknowledge the basic defining elements of his arguments: the “evidence” the reader presents (or not) to Mr. DeMar. This article is a great example of how to argue the JudeoChristian and moral foundations of our arguments of the Christian founding of our nation. Mr. deMar also refers to evidentiary arguments against Darwinism in his article. While this article is a bit long, it is very well written and I recommend that you read it.

By Gary DeMar  Have you ever been in a debate with someone who asks for evidence for this or that particular issue, and after giving the evidence it is dismissed as not being relevant? Facts do not speak for themselves. “Facts do not come with interpretation tags, telling us how to view them. . . . Both sides haggle over the facts. Both sides search for new facts to add to their arsenals. Both sides raise accusations, yet it’s a rare day indeed when both sides acknowledge that their differences stem from something much more basic than facts. Their differences are rooted in opposing worldviews, which in turn are permeated with philosophical assumptions and commitments.”1 Facts are always interpreted by an array of presuppositions. For example, when the NT is shown to offer eye-witness evidence of the death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus, the skeptic will claim that a resurrection of the dead is impossible, therefore, the evidence is suspect. Essentially, this comes to, “What my net doesn’t catch ain’t fish.”I’ve been answering some objections from a man who has rejected his Roman Catholic upbringing and is now questioning the existence of God. There is nothing new in his arguments, but I don’t want to dismiss him out of hand. I do, however, want to set the parameters of what constitutes a good debate. The proper use of evidence is important. When someone says, “There is no evidence for the existence of God,” my first response is, “What constitutes evidence, and who gets to decide?” After my initial answer to some of his historical comments relating to the founding of America, I wrote the following in response:Dear Dan,
Like you, I was raised Roman Catholic, and like you received no real theological or historical training other than, “the church says it, and you are to believe it.” So it’s not surprising to me that you are questioning the authority behind religious claims. In reality, you have rejected one faith and adopted another. You seem to be repeating the arguments of others: Robert Ingersoll, Karen Armstrong, and Bart Ehrman. (American Vision and Alpha and Omega Ministries will be conducting a debate between James White and Ehrman on January 21, 2009 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I’ve dealt with a few of Bart Ehrman’s arguments. For a NT scholar, he is not very well informed.) Your approach to this subject is not much different from the way you followed Roman Catholicism. Ingersoll, Armstrong, and Ehrman have become your new religious authorities. So why are they any better informed on issues of ultimate importance than Roman Catholic priests, bishops, and Popes? Why do you trust their evolved brains and the electrical impulses they displace that makes their lips move to say things? I sent you my brief evaluation of some of your arguments in an earlier article to see how you would respond. You answered just the way I thought you would. I needed to know how you would deal with evidence. I gave you evidence contrary to Ingersoll, and you dismissed it wanting to move on to the Bible. Until you respond to the evidence I supplied to you contrary to Ingersoll’s historical assertions, there is no sense in me attempting to answer your biblical objections. So let me repeat them for you with some additions:

            Not since 1991 has a single subject been so projected into mainstream discussion. If you recall, it was in 1991 that the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas brought sexual harassment to the fore of public consciousness. In much the same way, the comments and rhetoric of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the statements made by Geraldine Ferraro, and yesterday’s (March 18) speech by Barack Obama have propelled the topic of racism to the forefront of American discussion.

            While most people will not argue with the fact that there is a huge racial divide in this country, no one truly wants to get to the root of the issue of racism. I want to remind the readers of a few things that are relative to this discussion:

• This country was torn apart by the question of whether or not states had the right to allow slavery. We bear the pain of slavery to this day, to wit the discussion going on right now.
• It is well established that American slaves were brought over from the African slave trade. West African tribes had a competitive and thriving slave trade. The operators of this slave trade were black tribal leaders.
• The Richards Sugarcane Plantation in Louisiana had 152 slaves. The Richards were free blacks.
• American slaves were very often physically beaten and tortured, and many slave families were torn apart by the selling of their family members.
• Slavery is not limited to blacks. Jews were enslaved many times in their history, most notably in Egypt. Some black historians believe that this Egypt was a black Egypt.
• Today, the slave trade is rich, especially in the Middle East, and in African nations like Sudan.

 I bring these facts up not to repudiate or excuse the white man’s role in slavery. If there was no demand for slaves, slavery would not exist. I do bring it up to show that blacks, and specifically, black plantation owners as well as black tribal leaders, also played their part in slavery. The black tribal leaders are doubly implicit, however, because they sold their own people into slavery! 

So, we must now ask ourselves a very hard question: is slavery, and more particularly, racism, a “white” issue? Is it a “black” issue? I would submit to you it is both, and more. It is a red issue, a yellow issue. To capture everyone under this wide net, it is a heart issue. Because of the visible differences in color, culture, language and lifestyle, it is impossible, due to our human nature, to not differentiate between people of color. It is impossible for a white person not to do it, and it is equally impossible for a black person not to do it. This does not mean both sides always negatively discriminate, but both sides do differentiate between black and white by default. While the Bible I hold dear has been used in times past and present to justify racism and slavery, that very same Bible teaches us that God made all men out of one blood. We are literally descended from Adam and from Noah, and thus we should all treat each other with kindness and respect. But we don’t. Why? Because we are people that clue in on the differences between each other, and we cannot escape it.

I once saw a news documentary which showed how black people of lighter color discriminated against darker colored black people. I also saw an interview in which a young white college student disguised herself for a month as a black teenager at a high school. She was considerably dark, and lighter skinned black people were very hateful and discriminatory toward her. She also suffered taunts from white people as well. In short, it was a very horrendous experience for her. She went away convinced that racism is not a skin issue, it is a heart issue. People zero in on the differences, and naturally begin to use that as a reference point by which to distance themselves from those who are different.

           Today, we no longer have slavery in America. However, we are all enslaved, to some degree, to hate. We do not love people of our own color, let alone people of other colors. Blacks are killed by blacks more often than whites, and this phenomenon has led to the term “Black-on-Black Violence”. That is hate. If it was love, the crime wouldn’t occur! (For this reason we should do away with hate crime laws, and focus on the criminal action, and not the motive of the crime. All crime is hate crime, but I digress). Jesus said that in the last days, iniquity would abound, and because of it, the love of many would grow cold. What we see today is racism, but is due to the wickedness of the human heart, and not just the white one. Wickedness abounds in the black heart, white heart, red heart, and yellow heart. The racially charged N-word, the H-Word (you know the word, the one that rhymes with donkey), or whatever the word is merely an expression that seeks to dehumanize the other person. A friend of mine and I were having a discussion the other day about calling some one a fool. This term is a step toward dehumanization, and anytime we dehumanize someone, we are stepping closer toward hate. As we inch toward hate, it becomes easier and easier to deny that person the respect and dignity God grants them as an individual. Since racism stems from hate, it is no wonder we utter the N-word or the H-word under our collective breaths: we are attempting to dehumanize the person and justify our hate. Don’t think this is without historical precedent. Nazi Germany went to great lengths to dehumanize the Jews. Jews were given numbers, and were not called by their names. They were mostly untouched by guards and workers. The dead Jews were not handled by Germans-instead, Jewish camp workers handled the Jewish dead. When the time came to put the Jews to death, the Nazi henchmen did not release the gas-the Jews themselves were made to release it. And to top it off, the Nazis were very selective in the poison used to kill the Jews. Do you know what the poison was? Zyclon B. The poison was dropped in crystal form, through a small hole in the ceiling, into the gas chambers. The pellets turned into a lethal gas once in air. Previous to its use in gas chambers, Zyclon B was a common insecticide. The Nazis became so adept with their dehumanization of Jews that they did even acknowledge their fundamental humanity and they killed them with bug spray.

Please, let us address the issue of hate in every heart, and not dehumanize one another. Our survival as a country depends on it. Today, I had the opportunity to pray with a friend of mine that I attend church with. This man is in the middle of a separation and likely divorce. We stood in the parking lot, clasped hands together in an interlocking fisthandhold, and we prayed. I prayed for this black friend of mine, for him to be reconciled with his white wife, for the sake of their mixed children. When we finished praying, we hugged. In public. In a parking lot. See, this fellow church member is more than just another human being to me. “What is he?” you may ask? He is my brother. And that is the key to confronting racism.

The headline at http://wcbstv.com/politics/eliot.spitzer.resigns.2.674646.html reads:

“RESIGNED TO DISGRACE”

“Eliot Spitzer Steps Down Following Biggest Scandal In Modern New York Political History”

I have not been following the Eliot Spitzer story too closely, because I live in Tennessee. However, I feel that people would do well to observe how this whole thing is playing out, because it is reflective of the mind set of people on a national level.

Before I go there, however, I need to say this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It is not a Liberal or Conservative issue. It is a moral issue, in which an ordinary man somehow got caught up in the immoral and illegal world of prostitution. Although he was governor, and a rising political star, he is still just an ordinary man. He has lusts, desires, dreams and goals, like we all do. Ironically, the laws this ordinary man helped create and enforce in his state were also the same laws which brought him down. Because of the position he held as governor, he is not being offered a plea deal. Also, this is appropriate because of the moral position he took in passing laws to eradicate these very crimes in his state.

However, I was perplexed about one thing. It seems as if there was a question of whether or not he should resign. Why was there any question at all? This is no different than the situation conservatives have found themselves in, namely Senator Larry Craig and Rev. Ted Haggard. A situation of this magnitude requires moral clarity. However, when there is no standard of morality, and when the concept of absolute truth is tossed out the window, quick action that is normally required for such issues as Spitzer found himself in is not easily arrived at.

And therein lies the topic of this article: moral authority is lost when a moral foundation is absent. As our great nation “progresses” into post-modernism, we find ourselves trying to reconcile post-modern thought with the principles of our Founding Fathers. Be they Deists, Theists, Baptists,  or otherwise, the majority of the Founding Fathers still held on to one common thread: the authority of scripture as the basis for personal and national morality. Scattered throughout their writings were words like “divine providence”, “God”, and “Creator”. They recognized the Godly foundation of all life, and swore to hold it high in the public sector. As we have continued toward a multicultural society, the foundation of our society has shifted from an absolute authority (scripture) to a pseudo-foundation based on humanism and relativistic morality. The categorial imperative is no more: it’s all relative.

Which leads me back to the Spitzer issue. We are no longer basing our decisons based upon principles, we base them on conditions. The decision moves from clear decisive language such as “I have done X, therefore I must do Y.” to language more like ”What decision should we make in this situation? Well, that depends on…”

Sure, we must bring as many factors as we can into our decision making, because factors affect them. However, there are times for decisions when principles outweigh factors, and Spitzer’s decision was one of them. What should have been a fast and quick decision instead took handwringing, contemplation, and consideration. Well pardon my unbending, unyielding self, had this ordinary man been a moral man, he would would not have found himself in this situation. Furthermore, had he been a man with any sort of moral foundation (even if he did not do the moral thing) he should have some basis for his decision, and not have taken such a long time to come to it. And before any liberals attack my words, I feel the same way about Senator Craig and Rev. Haggard. Why do I feel that way? Because principles based on scripture are neither Republican or Democratic, they are just right. It so happens that these principles declared that the governor is wearing no clothes. These principles are indeed right, figuratively and literally.