So What Is This "Church" Thing Anyway?

A few months ago I was watching one of my favorite shows, and the words were shouted "We're good people! We go to church on Sundays!" The number one problem with Christianity today is that "Church" is a place you go, not something that you are. The true definition of the church is the body of Christ, and His believers. It is not a building, it's not a service, and it's not a ritual that makes us right with God, which is why I have been trying to take the phrase "going to church" out of my vocabulary completely. It's not even a grammatically correct sentence!

We as Christians have bought into the lie that our attendance at a certain place on a Sunday morning, or even a Sunday or Wednesday night defines our moral superiority. We think that where and how often we "go to church" ranks us higher on the religious barometer, earning points with God, and eventually, our mansion in Heaven. We think that God is more pleased with us and will bless us more if we are in the pews every week, regardless of what is going on in our hearts and in our lives. And then, when things aren't going our way, we can challenge Him and ask Him why He's allowing such a faithful follower to be going through such hard times.

As believers, we need to BE the church, and we need to understand what that means. The church is a family, full of people who have come to a realization that they desperately need the saving power of Jesus Christ, and want to share that realization with other people. The church is a group of people who lifts each other up in difficult times, praying for one another, and that stands up and fights back when the enemy attacks. The church is a group that is far from perfect, and knows that there is always room to grow, and that the Kingdom of God can never reach its capacity. That means including those that we think would never accept an invitation into the Kingdom. That means inviting the poor, the outcast, and the people that we think nobody understands. We need to look at those that Jesus ministered to and spent time with, and emulate that. He wasn't afraid to reach out to the poor, He thrived on it. He wasn't afraid to reach out to the "sinners" and the hated tax collectors, it was Him that said "It's not the healthy that need the doctor, but the sick."

Christianity was never meant to be a religion, it was meant to be a relationship. Religion tells us to do good things and God will reward you. Do good things and earn points that you can use to cash in to get that new job, new car, new house etc. Spirituality tells us to have faith in God and love for Him and others, and do good things out of that, and He will bless you when you do it for the right reasons, probably in ways that you did not expect. Having a relationship with God means that we want to please Him, so we put ourselves in positions to do that, which almost always includes encouraging others.

We hear the statement all the time "well I don't believe that you have to go to church to go to heaven." I guess the question from many in response is "well do you really want to take that chance?" However, worship services and Bible Studies shouldn't be a religious experience that people should run FROM, it should be a spiritual experience to run TO. "Going to church" may not be what gets us into Heaven, but where do you get your spiritual encouragement? If you say on your own, are you reading your Bible, and praying often? Are you working with a charitable organization, helping people to spread the word? Do you have others to pray with you when you are going through tough times? And actually pray, not just say "you're in our thoughts and prayers"? Are you being challenged by others in your spiritual walk?

 An important question to ask, is "do you look forward to being at a Bible Study or worship service". If you're not excited to attend services, then some type of change needs to take place. Many different things could be causing that, and it could be you, it could be the church, or it could be God telling you to find someplace that makes you feel more at home. Nothing is worse than attending services every week, and getting nothing out of it, but many people do attend just to continue a tradition. In the book of James we read that "Faith without works is dead". However, the opposite is true as well, because works without faith is dead too. We can help people for the sake of helping them to have a better day, however if it's not coming from the love of Jesus, then are we really doing them a long term favor? Finding a congregation to be a part of, not just go to, will help us to grow in that understanding. The more that we know Jesus, the more we will want to spread His word, and the more that we will see the joy that He has to share. Joining a group of people who truly practice this and understand this will take us a long way in spreading that truth. So as believers, let's not just "go to church" this Sunday and/or Wednesday. Let's BE the church every single day!

Fact Vs. Fiction

So I’ve been saying for a long time that if the media treated Romney and Obama the same way, that Obama would get around 25% of the vote. I stand by that statement, and there are things about Obama that nobody in the mainstream media will tell you, because they only want you to know about the “good” things Obama has done. My question is, what has he done that’s so good? Behind most of the examples, are things that HE didn’t really do, or that actually had a lot of negative originations and/or consequences. Obama is a flat out liar, and throughout this post, that will be proven. The media will defend him until the bitter end, and they have been doing that all along. If they hadn’t been doing that since before the last election, he never would have been voted in! Keep in mind, that to me, Romney was the worst Republican candidate. Personally, I wanted Herman Cain to win the nomination, and my second would have been Newt. However, on Romney’s worst day, he’s still better than Obama on his best day.


We’ll start off on the most recent events in Benghazi. Now, I’m one of the many who bought into this LIE that our ambassador was killed because of outrage and anger resulting from the YouTube video. This lie was repeated several times for weeks, and after the attacks, Obama mentioned the word terror, vaguely, possibly referring to the original attacks in 01. We find out a couple of weeks later that the MURDER had nothing to do with the video, and that it was a blatant lie, and that the Obama Administration knew that it had nothing to do with it. They wanted to make it look like this was a spontaneous attack, because extra security had been requested, but denied. So it was a planned attack, and Obama wanted us to think that it just came from nowhere, because ultimately, the death is on his hands. Now, the person that made that video has been blasted, and basically accused of murder. Where is the outrage on his behalf? I don’t agree with what he said or did, but we live in America, and not only did he get accused of contributing to someone’s death, it was the President of the United States of America pointing the finger, to keep the finger being pointed at himself! Why don’t we care about this? Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex. President Bush was called a liar and many wanted him impeached when we didn’t find WMDs. But nobody cares when Obama blatantly lies to the entire world?!? Now the difference here is that contrary to popular belief, despite what the media tells us, George Bush didn’t go to war in Iraq based on a personal vendetta. Look on YouTube and you will find plenty of democrats, Bill, Hillary, John Kerry, and many others, agreeing that Saddam Hussein had weapons, and that he needed to be stopped, and they voted for the war. On a side note, Joe Biden claimed during his debate with Paul Ryan that he voted against both wars, but his actual voting record shows that he voted for them both. In a report by John Rockefeller, it was proven that every single statement that George Bush made about Saddam having weapons was supported by intelligence all over the world. Amazingly still, that doesn’t make the news. Everybody still blames him for going to war based on a lie, when that wasn’t the case at all. But Obama has been a PROVEN liar, and I haven’t even heard the word impeachment for some reason. If that’s not grounds for it, I don’t know what is. Oh, and one other thing, the war in Libya, really was an illegal war. Obama refused to get congressional approval. That’s just one thing more thing that we didn’t hear about from the mainstream media.

As it relates to class warfare, I’m so sick and tired of this “Romney is rich and I can’t relate to him” garbage. Wouldn’t we all like to have what Romney has? People like to talk a lot about the rich but really don’t have a clue when it comes to facts, and they certainly don’t understand how the economy works. I can’t defend his tax record, because I haven’t seen the returns, and honestly, I’m not a CPA so I can’t say how much he paid, but I do know something that the media doesn’t want YOU to. Ever heard of Timothy Geithner? He’s the treasury secretary, and he’s a proven and admitted tax cheat. Why don’t we hear about this one? Are you noticing a trend? The main point of this section is actually that the idea that the democrats are all for helping the poor and that the republicans are all for the rich is a proven lie. Study after Study shows that democrats make more money, and give far less of it away. There have been many of these, but the most recent that I saw showed that democrats made 6% more in income, yet gave 30% less! You won’t see that on CNN or MSNBC. So my question for all of these rich liberals who always say “we don’t pay enough”, is why don’t you give the difference between what you think you SHOULD be taxed and what you ARE being taxed to the middle class or poor? My suggestion: put your money where your mouth is! Romney has given far more to charity than Obama, and I’m not talking about dollars, I’m talking about percentages. Don’t be fooled, Obama isn’t exactly poor. And tell me, how can you relate to Obama? We’ll get to his past soon enough, but he’s likely the shadiest person to ever grace the Oval Office, and we don’t hear any of it. To those who say they can’t relate to Romney because he’s rich, isn’t that exactly what you want? If 10 people were to rub a lamp one a genie came out, AT LEAST 9 of those people would wish for money in one of their three wishes! Romney is the American dream, but since it’s only our dream, and not our reality, we want the government to take it from him and give it to us. Do you know what Bain Capital did? We hear about all the jobs that he supposedly lost, but we don’t hear of those that he saved. Bain Capital’s job was to buy companies going out of business, and turn the companies around. His success rate was 70%. So you do the math, if 70% of the companies were kept open, doesn’t that mean he did far more harm than good? Adding to that, don’t we want someone who knows a thing or two about making money to be the in the office? Obama was a senator for 2 years and a Community Organizer before that. He did nothing before becoming president, and somehow we bought in to this “hope and change” garbage. As far as Romney’s 47% comments, they were taken out of context, and if a member of the audience had asked him to clarify them by asking “well what about the people who really do need the help?” he would’ve backtracked and realized that many in that 47% really can’t work. His overall point was to say that he’s not going to waste time campaigning to groups of people who won’t vote for him anyhow. The left has done a very good job at making Romney, and most conservatives to be out for the rich, and he’s not going to change their minds, so he’s not going to try to. Obama’s idea of helping the poor is to put them all on food stamps, which isn’t really helping them at all, and Romney’s history suggests that he can create jobs.

Moving toward an issue that was big in the 2008 election, gas prices are up and so are a lot of other expenses. As it relates to fuel, why was it all George Bush’s fault back in 07-08, yet we don’t directly blame the president anymore? I find that a little suspicious. When Bush was president, all we heard was that he was a “big oil man”, and that’s why gas went so high. In the last couple of months, nationally it’s been higher than ever, but we’re not hearing about how it’s the president’s fault anymore. As it relates to other things, such as food prices going up, a large part of that is because of fuel going up. You may have heard the phrase “if you bought it, a truck brought it”, and it’s usually true. Almost all of the products we buy, even the fuel itself, is transported, which costs a lot more when fuel prices are up. There are more factors though, one in particular that we are ignoring. We now have $16 trillion in debt. When the government spends money, it has three ways of paying. The first is on our credit card to China, second to raise taxes, and third, is to print more money. For every dollar that our government prints, it lowers the value of all of the others. It’s supply and demand. Anytime that there is a shortage of anything, the value and/or price goes up, but anytime there is a surplus of a product the value and/or price goes down. So when we print a trillion dollars, it takes more of those dollars to buy a gallon of milk, or a gallon of gas.

Now, in his last campaign, Obama called Bush unpatriotic and irresponsible for the portion of debt. It’s true that Bush spent far too much money, but the media ignores the fact that Obama has spent more in 4 years than Bush did in 8! Where’s the outrage? Now to debunk this theory of the “Obama inherited a mess so that justifies it” crowd, Bush inherited a recession as well, and instead of blaming the previous administration for 4 years, he did something about it. Those evil “Bush Tax Cuts” got us out of a recession before it got too bad, and most people don’t even realize what could’ve happened because for the most part, it was prevented. I find it interesting that most people have no idea that the president has to work with congress, and the fact that they have no idea as to when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took over it. If you look through the history books, you’ll see that unemployment was down, and the economy was fine until about 2007, about a year and a half after the democrats took over congress, and then it felt like the bottom fell out. Hmm. Could it be that that there’s a connection between when they took over congress and the decline? Well the media says that there’s no connection so that’s what we blindly believe as well. No, George Bush wasn’t perfect, but most people would agree that his worst two years were his last two, and he didn’t have any control in those two years.

In this last section, you will see evidence to the fact that Obama is a socialist, and has had some very extreme associations, and even some appointees. Barack Obama’s biological father, as well as his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis were both communists, and during his time as a Community Organizer he came into contact with socialist groups. You may have heard of Van Jones, who was Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar”. If the media had been doing their jobs correctly, then the public would’ve known that Van Jones was an admitted communist who had very extreme connections. Glenn Beck made waves when he started telling people on his show what Van Jones was all about. You have likely heard of Bill Ayers, who is an unrepentant domestic terrorist who said he wishes that he had bombed more buildings. Obama claims that Ayers was “a guy in the neighborhood”, but there is evidence that Bill Ayers was actually the author of “Dreams of my Father”. Obviously if that is the case, then Ayers was much more than a guy in the neighborhood. He also sat on boards with Ayers, and has connections with other radical people like Luis Farrakhan, Tony Rezko, and the infamous Jeremiah Wright. You may remember that Wright was Obama’s pastor for 20 years, and baptized both of his children, yet Obama claimed that he didn’t realize how radical and racist Wright was when he was asked about Wright’s sermon that contained the words “No no no, not God ‘Bless’ America, God ‘D***’ America!” Later when Wright was asked why Obama no longer spoke with him, his answer was “Them Jews ain’t gonna let him talk to me.” These are just a few of the people that Obama has connections with, but why don’t we know more about them, and even more important and telling, is why don’t we DEMAND to know more about them? If George Bush had half of the associations that Barack Obama has, he would’ve been unelectable. Why is the standard not the same for Obama? In his first campaign, he was asked by a man that was later named “Joe the plumber” why he wants to tax his small business more, and Obama’s response was that if you build the economy from the bottom up, then everybody is doing well, and finished with the infamous phrase, “spread the wealth around”. This idea is what socialism is all about! You cannot build an economy from the ground up, because the people at the bottom will not and cannot create jobs, the people at the top do! He also made the quote recently, that if you own a business, you didn’t build that, someone else made that happen! What more evidence do we need?!? How is that not enough to prove that he is a socialist? He basically said to small business owners that they owe everything they have to the government. It wasn’t a gaffe, and he didn’t misspeak. He simply spoke from the heart, and believes that we should all depend on the government, which is practically the definition of socialism.

Anyhow, you’re going to vote for whoever you want. If you want to believe in hope and change all over again, then we’re in for 4 more years of blaming the previous administration. Mitt Romney isn’t perfect, but when you look up the facts as to who he is and what he has done for other people, he’s a good man. The amount and percentages that both he and his wife have given to charities throughout the years debunks the idea that he’s this greedy self-absorbed parasite that the media would have you to believe. He says he’s got a plan. I don’t agree with all of it, but overall, I think it could work if he gets it put into place. We’ve seen what Obama’s overall plan has been in the last 4 years, which is to tax the rich more, put more people on welfare, and to spend more money that we don’t have. We know that his policies don’t work, not just from the last 4 years, but looking at our own history, and at other systems around the world that do similar things. So our options: 4 more years of policies that don’t work, or a possibility of a balanced budget and more jobs. We’re all entitled to our own opinions, but we’re not entitled to our own facts. The media won’t present them, so I’ll do my best to do that for them.

Excuses

I was thinking the other day about the proliferation of sexual innuendo in this country, especially as it relates to our younger crowd. Granted, sex has always been something that is difficult to turn down, and the desire is a part of our nature. However, it IS under our control, no matter how many excuses we make for it. We can say that it's who we are, we can say that it's not reasonable to wait until marriage, and we can say that waiting is a crazy idea. Yet there was a time in this country where it was not only admirable to wait, it was expected.

Today, turn on BET, VH1, or MTV, and all that you will see is an incentive for young teens to have sex with whoever they want. Our music, as well as their videos, talk largely of sleeping with complete strangers. The lyrics of our "musicians" today is absolutely ridiculous, but is subliminal, and believe it or not, encourages very bad behavior. It sounds absurd that teens would do something because of lyrics in a song, but in reality, it does happen.

The reason for all of this is that we want to believe that as long as it doesn't "hurt" anyone, that it's okay and that there is nothing wrong with it. We apply that idea to pretty much everything, but God doesn't look at it that way at all. God tells us what's right and wrong, but we don't believe Him, and we show that when we ignore His word. The presumption that "nobody gets hurt", isn't as true as we would like it to be, and is simply a rationalization. The Bible says that sex is to be between a man and his wife, not a man and his girlfriend, his fling, or friend. Regardless of how we interpret the Bible, we cannot change that.

One of the biggest problems is our educational system that we have created and have allowed to infiltrate our schools. Our sex ed classes start too early, and only teach certain prevention methods, none of which are morally based. We teach our children that it's okay to have premarital sex as long as a condom is worn, or if birth control is used. We teach abortion as an option if it is necessary. A pretty obvious approach that we avoid is that abstinence is really the only way to completely avoid an STD or pregnancy. What we are really telling our children when we accept this type of philosophy is: "I want you to abstain from premarital sex, but more than that, I want you to avoid the consequences of your actions. I also don't have any faith in you, so I'm not going to try to convince you not to do it, because I know that you will do it anyway." We have basically told our kids that we know that they're not going to do what is right, but provide a way for them to do the wrong things, yet reward them for it. Actions have consequences, whether good or bad. However, we're doing everything we can to participate in sinful activities, yet avoid those negative consequences. We're becoming the notorious Sodom and Gomorrah that is described in the Bible.

From a Christian standpoint, it's sad that most of our churches don't really stand behind the concept of sex within a marriage only. We have become more mainstream, not wanting to offend anyone. We believe that "good people" are all going to go to heaven, regardless of whether they follow Jesus' example or not. Our preachers have preached God's grace only, ignoring Jesus' statement that "narrow is the gate that leads to Heaven, but wide is the gate that leads to destruction." So Jesus Himself said that most people won't enter the kingdom of Heaven, only those that do the will of the Father. We don't like that, because it doesn't create this warm fuzzy feeling. We feel uncomfortable when we realize that sin is sin, regardless of whether anyone involved is hurt. So instead of dealing with it, we pretend that accepting it is an extremist view. Repentance is crucial to forgiveness of sin, which literally means "changing your mind".

To any single parents reading this, my point is not to offend you, and I sincerely apologize for hurt feelings. However, I will not apologize for speaking the truth. Jesus meant what He said, and I would much rather offend a few people here on this Earth and help a few, than have God ask me on judgement day why I didn't speak the truth in love while I was here. The truth is that if I don't speak that truth, and no lives are affected, and others don't enter the kingdom because of it, that is my fault! I'm not doing anyone any good if I keep this truth to myself, and others are condemned because of my silence. So this is spoken in love, and is intended to be encouraging. It is never too late to turn your life to God, no matter what your past may include. If you believe in Jesus, and believe in the Bible, then you have to believe in all of it, not just the parts that are easy to put into practice. Jesus said a lot of things, but He never once said that following Him was easy. Nobody is perfect, and I am about as far from it as one can be. Paul said: "Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst." However, he never once waivered when it came to preaching the truth. Premarital sex is a sin, but so are plenty of others, many of which I am myself am guilty. The reason I mention this specifically is that it is one of the most ignored and accepted. If you haven't waited in your past, it's not too late to start now. God DOES love you regardless of your sin, and will forgive us all, as long as we repent and do our best to live for Him. Which gate do you choose: the narrow, or the wide?

Broken System

Today, we have been shown that our judicial system is no more than a bad joke. In many cases, the innocent are wrongly convicted, and in this instance, the guilty go free. Casey Anthony is a cold, calculating individual who has escaped justice in this life. There were so many reasons that she should be in prison, and unfortunately, at least in earthly terms, she will never pay for the life that she has taken, her own daughter's.

How many individuals do you know that have kids? Out of those people, how many do you know who would take more than a few minutes to report their child missing if they had no clue of there whereabouts? Caylee Anthony was only reported missing when her grandmother reported it, 31 days after she had gone missing. Within that 30 days, Casey danced at clubs, slept around, got a tattoo containing the words "The Good Life". Not my idea of an innocent woman. After Caylee was reported missing, she claimed that a babysitter named Zannie kidnapped the 2 year old, a person that she now admits didn't exist. She also made up a story saying that Caylee was with her rich boyfriend, another proven lie.

The defense in this case baffled me from the start. On the first day, Casey's lawyer, Jose Baez claimed that her father, George Anthony had molested her when she was a child. He also made the accusation that Caylee's death was an accident that Mr. Anthony had helped to cover up. The problem with this accusation, is that George Anthony was supposed to be such an important witness for the defense, yet he denied all of the claims. I am shocked that the trial ended as it did, because few defenses succeed when the witnesses aren't consistent with the statements made by the defense attorney. In other words, the defense won, even though one of their biggest witnesses disputed their case. That doesn't happen very often.

The burden of proof lies with the prosecution. In other words, the defense doesn't have to prove a thing, but the prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty. Unfortunately, that did not happen in this case. The problem today, is that we have too many TV shows, such as CSI, that cause people to believe that DNA evidence, among other things, will always be available, which throws circumstantial evidence out. It's true that the only physical evidence found was Casey's car, which, according to some, smelled like a decomposed body. The argument for the defense, however, was that there was no proof that Casey put the body in the car. Circumstantial evidence was more than abundant in this case though, and it was ignored because of the lack of physical evidence. I do find it ironic that Jose Baez's first several comments during the closing statements, were that the burden of proof was on the prosecution. Yet, he made accusations against his own star witness that they offered no evidence to defend. It's pretty convenient that he's not held responsible for backing up statements, yet the prosecution is.

So here come the questions. Why did she lie about the nanny and the boyfriend? Why did she put a tattoo on her body, "The Beautiful Life"? Why did she go out and dance when her daughter was missing, if she had nothing to do with it? A loving parent would be devastated, distraught, and would have reported her missing immediately. And finally, why did it take her 31 days to report the little girl missing?

Personally, I believe that the answers to the questions above is that she's guilty, and that Caylee became an obstruction to the life that she wanted to live. She wanted to be able to go out and do whatever she wanted, and the inconvenience of being a parent became more than she wanted to deal with. Unfortunately, I believe that her plan worked, and that in the end, she got what she wanted. She was found guilty of lying to police, which doesn't carry a long sentence, so she can legally go out to as many clubs as she wants, without a child at home to be responsible for.

I can see the reason that the jury came back with the verdict that they did, but I still don't agree with it. I had a sickening feeling that this was going to happen, but was hoping it wouldn't' take place like this. The truth is, that because of double jeopardy laws, Casey Anthony could admit that she killed Caylee, and walk free. Fair or not, agree with it or not, it is what it is, the law. I do find it ironic that the jury found her guilty of lying to officers, but why would she lie if she didn't have anything to do with the death of her little girl?

At the end of the day, God knows the exact details of this case better than we ever could. God will judge Casey Anthony, regardless of whether or not the jury made the correct decision. Caylee is in the arms of our Lord, and nothing will ever change that. She is in a place that we all hope to be able to be in someday, so while a great injustice took place on Earth, a great reward was earned in Heaven. We might not always understand why things happen the way that they do, but that doesn't usually matter. God has a plan, even when we don't understand it. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of faith to accept the things that we don't comprehend.

One Nation Under God

I would have to say that NBC got quite a bit of unwanted attention when they made the mistake of taking the words "Under God, indivisible" out of the Pledge of Allegiance when they aired it the other day. It was during the U.S open, and was intended to be a Father's Day tribute to all of the fathers that are currently serving in the military. They conveniently had an awkward silence when the words "Under God, indivisble" were supposed to be recited. I wonder what their expectations really were. I'm curious as to whether or not they thought it would create such a stir. I, for one, am sick and tired of this political correctness that we have allowed to infiltrate this great country of ours, because it is becoming a huge downfall, and will be the end of this country if we don't get a handle on it soon.

Isn't it ironic, that we always seem to ask God where He is when bad things happen? A loved one passes away, your neighbor loses his or her job, or your friend gets into a car accident. Where is God and why did He let this happen? Well, it's because all in all, what NBC did is becoming more and more common, and we're kicking God out of pretty much every area of everyday life. The only place we'll allow God to be is in church because thats where many believe He "belongs". We don't want to let Him interfere in other parts of our lives. We'll keep pushing God away and that's exactly where He'll go. Wouldn't you?

Is it any wonder that this word is in such bad shape? Believe it or not, there was a time in this country when homosexuality was considered wrong, sinful, and not something that was just okay. Out of wedlock births used to be considered as an embarrassment to the family, and was not tolerated, so they were much less common. Now, 750,000 teens become pregnant each year, many of which end those pregnancies through abortion. In our schools, homosexuality is taught as natural, and evolution is taught, but the idea of creationism is thought to be absurd. We completely disregard the Bible in areas where so called science "proves" it wrong. 1 Cor. 3 tells us that the wisdom of man is foolishness to God, and I can see that every day.

The saddest part of all is that Christians aren't even stepping up to speak the truth. We're too afraid to tell others that what they're doing is wrong because we don't want to offend them. The truth is, that by having that mindset, we're not doing them any favors. It is our job to preach the truth, and if we don't do that, then how are they to know? What would you say to someone on judgement day who didn't make it because they continued to live in sin, simply due to the fact that they were never told what sin was? We can make up the excuse "well how could they not know?" The answer? Our society brainwashes people to be accepting of anything and everything, but God tells us that not anything and everything is acceptable. Our churches get it half right, because God's grace is unimaginable, but His wrath is something that does exist, and I'd rather not find out what that's like.

So what do we do? Well most people believe in some sort of god, be it the Father of Jesus Christ or not. In other words, we're in the majority, we just keep silent to stay away from controversy. We don't want to be in the middle of an argument or cause any kind of disputes. Jesus' words indicate that most won't make it through the narrow gate, and I want to stuff as many through that gate as possible, and it's not going to happen by keeping my mouth shut. Let's stop the minority from making all the rules, and stand up for what we believe in. Let NBC know that we are ONE NATION UNDER GOD!!

Long Awaited Justice

So we've accomplished a great goal that we have had for years, which is eliminating Usama
Bin Laden! I will start out by saying that as a Christian, I have mixed feelings as to what my reaction should be. On one hand, as an American, I am glad to see that so many who have suffered for almost a decade are finally able to receive some type of closure. These people knew that their loved ones were killed by the embodiment of evil, and we couldn't seem to avenge those deaths, and now we can say that we have. On the other hand, as a Christian, I can look at this in one of two ways. I can either read Jesus' words, which are to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me, or I can read David's words in many occurrences in Psalms, asking God for justice and to destroy his enemies. Consistent with this in the New Testament are Paul's words in 1 Thess. 2:16, which talks about God's wrath being poured on those who killed Jesus "at last". This verse seems to point to the relief that justice has been served. Now I believe that it is possible for both viewpoints to be held by the same person.

Will I celebrate the fact that an unbeliever will be condemned and will not enter the kingdom? Of course not! Peter tells us that God wants all to come to repentance. Will I be upset that someone who has caused so much pain and suffering is gone? Of course not! The Bible says that God demands justice. So what will I do? I will rejoice for those who finally have received some consolation, knowing that the man who killed their loved ones can no longer taunt them, and they can know that this man can never harm another human being. I can also pray for Muslim extremists, who sympathize with Bin Laden, and hope that they will come to the Lord without harming any other innocent people. So yes, the bible is consistent in this and shows both sides, despite what atheists and agnostics would have you believe.

Now that the most important aspect of the issue has been addressed, what about the "politics" of the whole situation? First of all, I am far from a fan of Obama. I think he is a socialist and yes, I'm one of those "extremists" that questions his past, and have wondered whether or not he was born in this country. The truth is, that I haven't seen whether or not he has given any credit to the Bush administration. In the last two years, all I have seen is that he has blamed the previous administration for the problems that he promised to fix. He has taken credit for a lot of this situation, much of which is warranted. However, he also voted against this very war that we're in, and had it not been for the Bush , we wouldn't have been in a position to capture or kill Bin Laden to begin with. I have also heard and read reports that the reason that we received the intelligence that we did is from so called "enhanced interrogation" tactics, AKA torture. It has been a widespread belief on the left that torture doesn't work, and that it only leads to false information. If it is proven that torture led us to Bin Laden, then the opposite stance on torture will be proven wrong. Obama would obviously denounce these methods of interrogation, but will gladly take the credit for finding Bin Laden, but will deny that such tactics led us to him. The same goes for Guantanamo Bay. One of Obama's biggest campaign promises was to shut it down, yet had we done that, we wouldn't have been given the information that gave us Bin Laden.

Even though I see that he is not fully responsible for the events, I must give him credit because he certainly had a part in it. He made some pretty difficult calls, and did what was necessary, which was keeping it from the American people, as it had to be a covert operation. His administration made some great moves, and he made the right choices. He acted with great decisiveness, he was presidential, and that is to be congratulated. I also agree with the decision to dispose of Bin Laden's body at sea. The only reason that we have common ground on this issue is so that other Muslim extremists don't have a burial site to commemorate, or to set as a memorial site. The man didn't deserve those things, and so I believe that it was a good choice by dropping his body in the ocean where no one can find him. As far as those who are holding conspiracy theories saying that Obama wanted to publicize the death of the most wanted man alive for political purposes, I must disagree. At this point, we have no evidence that points to that, and I will trust that Bin Laden is dead until I have reason to believe otherwise. There are many things about this president that cause me not to trust him, but in this particular instance, I have no reason to doubt what we're being told.

I will say that I am very impressed with the fact that as a nation, we are all in agreement in our relief that the families of the 9/11 victims are finally able to breathe. I did not see it live, but watched a recording of the Phillies vs. Met game, and the events that occurred that night at the game amazed me. If you are unaware, during the game, many people received news updates on their phones and saw that the world's most wanted man had been killed. They proceeded to show others around them, and it got to the point where most of the fans knew what had happened. The entire crowd began chanting "USA" in pride as we had finally avenged the deaths of so many people nearly a decade later. Thousands gathered at Ground Zero, the White House, and many other places in public, singing the National Anthem, and stating the Pledge of Allegiance in unison. We agree on the fact that our troops keep us safe, and that it is their sacrifice that make these things possible. This is the America that I love. We disagree on too many other issues, and they certainly have their places, and those debates must not stop. However, on this occasion, let's just all agree that this was a great day for our country, and postpone those debates for a later time.

Tax cuts...

So I have been saying for years that there are too many ignorant people in this country that pretend to actually know what they're talking about, yet don't have a clue. There are so many out there who really don't know why tax cuts for the wealthy are so important, and demonize the people making a lot of money. Well for starters, I commonly ask a question that usually goes unanswered. Who do you think creates jobs and actually hire people? THE WEALTHY!!! If you tax the rich at ridiculous rates, as we are already doing, they will not be able to afford to hire people. Have you ever had a boss that was on welfare? Doubt it....

We have this mentality in this country that the rich are all greedy and evil and should have to give their money to everyone else. It is believed by many that we should punish them by taxing them at ridiculous rates.The truth is that 80-90% of millionaires are self made. In other words, they actually earned their income as opposed to inheriting it, or winning the lottery. They took huge risks, spent hundreds of sleepless nights, and did most of it on their own. Many of the people who believe that we should take more money from them are those on welfare, who steal money from those hard working Americans, and give it to those, who aren't. The rich in this country employ the middle class, and tax cuts or raises on these wealthy people effect us all.

It happens in two different ways, both directly and indirectly. The way that it works directly is that if you force higher tax rates to small business owners, they will have to lay off workers because they can't afford to pay their employees AND the federal government at the same time. Businesses are not hiring right now at just the thought of higher tax rates. They know that they are being punished for being successful, and they have to pass that punishment onto the people that they would like to be able to hire.

As far as the indirect ways, well it's something that we don't really think about. Wealthy spend money on things that most people can't afford. Yet, middle class workers MAKE those products. Let's take a yacht as an example. I personally can't afford to purchase one of these, but I recognize that the people who build them need their jobs. So, lets break it down. Think about the person that makes the flooring in this yacht. How about the person who installs the refrigerator? And the person who installs the sink and faucet in the kitchen of that yacht, and finally the salesperson who works on 100% commission to sell them to feed his family? Think about it! If we tax that rich person at higher levels than we already do, they can't afford to buy that yacht, which means that the people building it may no longer have a job. So you want to punish the evil rich guy, but you end up punishing the people that keep the rich guy happy, and then you're even more upset about the rich guy firing everybody!!

I have to recognize that right now, I am financially stable, but would welcome more income. I don't want a government handout though. I don't want to get rich by doing anything other than working hard. There are so many out there that want all the fancy houses and cars, yet don't want to do anything about it. They simply want you to take it from that other guy and give it to them! Those people have no integrity, and unfortunately, their group population is growing. More and more want something for nothing and we can't keep doing that because that's when socialism comes into play, and I personally don't believe that we are that far away from it...