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!

Well, Tennessee’s most famous (infamous?) treehugger has once again proven that eco-activists are not only wrong, most of them are hypocrites as well. According to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, Al’s energy consumption rose 10%. And that is WITH the energy conservation renovations he made to his home. At Snopes.com, one can also consider the inconvenient truth of Al’s energy hungry and decidedly enviromentally UNfriendly home, vs the alledgedly oil-crazed George W. Bush:

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LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST:

House # 1

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and
natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern “snow belt,” either. It’s in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as “the Texas White House,” it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON’T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it’s truly “an inconvenient truth.”

Sources:

http://tennesseepolicy.org/main/article.php?article_id=764

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

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Now, what should the average American think of these facts? Well, for starters, he should immediately recognize the environmental agenda for what it is: it is a means of enslaving and impoverishing the populace through guilt and misinformation. The environmental agenda is DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for rising oil prices (because we cannot drill or build refineries), high food prices, and starvation in many areas of the world. It has crippled the freedom to dissent on global warming views, causing many scientists to become pariahs within their fields of study. It has created a sham industry of trading carbon credits, which actually allows companies to POLLUTE MORE if they buy credits from a company that has not polluted as much. One dare not blaspheme the name of Gaia, for her followers will see to it you are labeled as uncaring, unsymapthetic, and get this, even dangerous.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not litter, I am going to try to start a campaign to recycle aluminum cans at work, and I try to conserve whenever I can. However, I do it because it is common sense. The left’s version of doing the right thing ultimately leads to a point where the eco-elite have rule over the people, and place unfair and heavy burdens on them. Instead of each person doing the right thing because they want to, they are taxed into submission until they cannot afford to buy anything they can pollute with. Pretty nifty plan, huh? Oh, and get this, tax the evil corporations until they have to raise their prices, or go out of business. If they raise prices, tax them more so they pay for environmental evils their company has brought upon the earth. And then, when they shut down, the former employees will have to create fires (ooh, that is evil) to stay warm, because they have no other means and cannot afford anything else.

So much for leadership, Al. You are the finest example of the difference between leadership and eco-elitism, and quite frankly we could do much better without your hypocritical bully pulpiting.

From the UPI:

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/18/texas_group_sues_to_stop_border_fence/1766/

 WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) — The Texas Border Coalition, which includes a number of cities along the U.S.-Mexico border has filed a lawsuit against the border fence.
In court papers filed Friday in Washington, the group asked a court to block the construction of the fence in the Rio Grande Valley.
The coalition, which also includes business groups, charges that the Department of Homeland Security did not consult landowners in the area. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff denied that in a news conference Friday.
Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, who chairs the coalition, called the fence “an antiquated solution for a 21st century problem.”

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Hmm, it is funny how people think a fence is antiquated or won’t work. It seems that I remember the Great Communicator Ronald Reagan saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” If a wall doesn’t work, then why bother asking to tear it down? It wasn’t just to remove a symbol of communism, because symbols alone don’t do squat. Walls are more than symbols, they are obstacles designed to impede mobility and keep undesirables out. Yes, I said illegal immigrants are undesirable. If that offends someone’s liberal senstitivities, oh well.

Now how many of us knew this was ever on the docket at the US Supreme Court?  Or perhaps knew that the justices were giving their ruling this week? I certainly didn’t. Don’t know what I am talking about? Read this excerpt:

States win over President on criminal law issue 

The Supreme Court, in a sweeping rejection of claims of power in the presidency, ruled 6-3 on Tuesday that the President does not have the authority to order states to relax their criminal procedures to obey a ruling of the World Court.  The decision came in the case of Medellin v. Texas (06-984).  Neither a World Court decision requiring U.S. states to provide new review of criminal cases involving foreign nationals, nor a memo by President Bush seeking to enforce the World Court ruling, preempts state law restrictions on challenges to convictions, the Court said in a ruling written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.

The Court explicitly, and with emphasis, rejected a presidential argument that the nation’s Chief Executive has power, on his own, to make an international treaty into binding law inside the U.S.  That can only be done by Congress, it stressed.

The decision, aside from its rebuff of presidential power, also treats the World Court ruling itself as not binding on U.S. states, when it contradicts those states’ criminal procedure rules.   The international treaty at issue in this dispute — the Vienna Convention that gives foreign nationals accused of crime a right to meet with diplomats from their home country — is not enforceable as a matter of U.S. law, the Roberts opinion said.  And the World Court ruling seeking to implement that treaty inside the U.S. is also not binding, and does not gain added legal effect merely because the President sought to tell the states to abide by the decision, the Court added. (For the full article, go to http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/states-win-over-president-on-criminal-law-issue/). Posted Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 10:10 am UPDATED 1:49 p.m. 

I have a great feeling about this Supreme Court. I believe they are going to be making rules according to the wording of the Constitution, and not make rulings based on the changing whims of societal mores. I especially liked this part:

The Court explicitly, and with emphasis, rejected a presidential argument that the nation’s Chief Executive has power, on his own, to make an international treaty into binding law inside the U.S.  That can only be done by Congress, it stressed.

Finally, checks and balances are being recognized by one branch of our government, at least! I just can’t help but wonder why there was so much in the press last week about the Heller gun case than there ever was over this HUGE case regarding states rights and national sovereignty. Makes you wonder about the agenda of the fourth estate, doesn’t it?

            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.