ChristianPolitics

While I was out in line for Black Friday I witnessed something that kept me thinking for the past few days. I was crazy enough to sleep in line on Thanksgiving evening and around 2am a guy came out and started preaching the gospel to those in line. This would have been fine except he wasn’t just talking he was yelling so everyone could here him, even those trying to sleep. Sleep, yes this may sound strange but waiting in line overnight for 12 hours or more and people had tents and sleeping bags and were actually trying to sleep.

What the man said was all true information about the Gospel of Jesus and our need for salvation. I’m not sure that yelling this at 2am while people were trying to sleep was the best option though.

This man did have the attention of a captive audience who wasn’t going anywhere and while right now is always the best time to get saved because you never know when you’re going to die I’m still not sure that was the best idea. It may have been God’s will for this happen so that some might be saved so I can’t second guess God and I can’t say this was definitely wrong. I can say in my opinion I think he may have turned more people off to the Gospel and so talking so loudly to people at 2am may not have been the best thing to do.

He was brave because he did receive many threats and it seemed he was willing to accept those threats for the sake of a good cause. As I said he was brave and he was also willing to risk being talked down to and yelled at and even threatened for what he thought was right. There should be more people willing to do this.

The really disturbing thing however was how quickly and ugly the responses came from those in line. People started turning on their car alarms to blast him out and were mocking him. One man actually went in his car and put on a sumo wrestler costume and was going to tackle him. The police were called to insure everyone’s safety. I’m sure this wasn’t even close to how bad it could have been, but it was bad enough.

Today I read an article about how Cherie Blair warned Michelle Obama that her career ad life would take a backseat to her husbands as he takes over the leadership role of a country. The article went on to talk about how nobody is making a big deal about how Michelle is loosing her very, very successful career making over $300,000. Of course she only got a huge raise when her husband became elected US senator. Her husbands career didn’t hold her back their it only helped it but now as first lady she will have to give that up and they are saying what a tragedy for modern “woman.”

What bothers me is that so many people fail to see the possibility that Michelle plans on being every bit a part of the job as Hillary Clinton was when Bill Clinton was president. In fact she may have bigger but less visible plans.

Here’s the thing though, even though many argued that they didn’t elect Hillary they will not give this same argument about Michelle. I believe Michelle Obama will be seen just as an extension of everything Obama believes, besides it is quite clear that Obama follows he lead anyway. The even funnier thing is that I think the first lady should play a role in that she is still a wife and wives are the partners of their spouses and can’t be removed from influencing their husbands. While political spouses aren’t legitimate elected officials they do have a vital role their spouse just the same as before their spouse was elected.

 Of course I think Michelle has a lot more say than anyone realizes. While the Obama campaign was smart to remove her from the spotlight after some of her remarks they did not and will not be able to silence her to Barack Obama.

Here once again is proof that the as Ronald Reagan said the government is the problem not the solution. There’s a story out now out about how New York city is making churches stop sheltering homeless people because they must either operate 5 days a week to shelter people or not at all. I’m sure there was some well meaning reason somewhere for this but it’s ridiculous. Of course it could be more sinister and it could be that the department of homeless services may want them staying in official city shelters so they can justify their budget. Regardless it’s just one more way to waste tax dollars and not help people the best way possible. So for all you people waiting for the Obama administration to come on board and solve all of your problems you’re not going to have to wait long before you see what what you get instead of genuine help, you’re more likely to get the government to be in genuine co

There is a lot of talk about what exactly Obama’s foreign policy will be. This is a little strange considering we are suppose to be in one of the worst economic situations in decades. There has been some talk about Obama’s plans to raise taxes and other domestic issues but all of the talk and speculation and movement seem to be around foreign policy issues.

Though I worry about all of Obama’s stances on domestic issues I am more worried about his foreign policy issues and his lack of experience. It’s far more than just his lack of experience though. Obama as promised is surrounding himself with people of experience. Though the people he has chosen such as Rahm Emanual are vastly experienced they aren’t known for the experiences as much as they are known for their far left and radical opinions and such. I’m left to wonder if Obama is hiring people to give him an opinion or he has an agenda even more radical than that of the people he is hiring.

With all of the movement around the area of foreign policy in the soon to be inaugurated Obama administration along with the far left appearance of the administration I am deeply concerned that Obama has something significant planned in the area of foreign policy. This something significant if it is being planned is something we should be on the lookout for because I fear it will be very dangerous for everyone.

Unfortunately many people who are frustrated at not having or getting what they want eventually cave in to get what they want. By cave in I mean they will either except less and less to just get something or they will compromise their beliefs, values and other things that are important to them.

I’ve known several Christians who know that it is not Biblical for Christians to marry non-Christians but then because of their loneliness have given up and dated or married non-Christians. There have been many so called conservatives who are so frustrated with the republican part they have become democrats and even liberals. I guess in that case they figure if you can’t beat them, than you might as well join them.

In this news story the author talks about how this Middle East peace plan is so deficient it does not even cover the basic needs of the Israelis but that despite all of that, it is worth a look. This is really nonsense, some Israelis including leading politicians want peace so badly they are at the point of willingness to almost give anything. Because of this, they will probably not get peace because the other side still thinks they can get them to give in more.

In the Bible there is a prophecy that during the end times the evil ruler who will run the world (referred to as the antichrist) will make everyone take a mark or they will not be able to buy or sell. The Bible also says that taking this mark is basically committing yourself to the antichrist and that if you take the mark there is no way to repent and be saved. The pressure will be great on everyone to take the mark because without it you will likely die. Because of this great pressure many will probably take the mark, including some who said they were Christians. People will do this because they’ll really want to live. Unfortunately this will be short sighted because in the end they will have lost their souls.

So in politics and personal decisions be careful not to be short sighted just to get what you have desired for so long. In the end you will be better off sticking to your beliefs, and principals.

Never, never, never give up. - Winston Churchill

Everything in the news today and the last few weeks has all been about the economy and stocks and other financial news.

I wanna just take a little bit of time to step away from politics for this post. Regardless of what you may see or hear, no matter what happens with the world’s economic crisis the world will not fall apart. God is in control and the world will not fall apart. Things may get bad for people and familes and that is sad and I feel for them. I myself am not immune from the financial diffuclties. But there is a God in heaven and I trust that he will bring me and my family through this time. I pray that all of you reading this will trust in the one and only God through His only begotton son Jesus not only to get you through this difficult time but so that you may have the abundant life that Jesus talked about and eternal life beyond this one.  

Al Qaeda threatened Obama and the US again. Will Al Qaeda attack now that they have announced it? WHen they have attacked before I don’t think it has been with a warning right before it happened. It makes it harder to carry out an attack when you’re enemy is looking for it. So either Al Qaeda does not have the ability to do more than threaten us right now or it is part of a plan to confuse us before the real attack happens at some point in the future or before an attack somewhere else.

Iran seems to be willing not to stop enrichment of Uranium and possibly it’s work towards nuclear weapons. Iran says it’s only working on a civilian nuclear plan but they won’t give enough information to verify that or take a step towards being less provacative in the way they develop their nuclear program. Sounds just like Saddam Hussien right before we invaded. You can either believe Saddam had no WMD and didn’t want to appear weak and didn’t budge because he thought we wouldn’t attack or you can believe he had the WMD and moved them someplace like syria right before and during the invasion. If Saddam really thought we wouldn’t invade he must not have been very smart considering we built up all those troops right near him and said we were about to invade in x amount of days. But the point is, is Iran bluffing?

Israel several times acted like they would do a pre emptive strike to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons but it seems like they really won’t act without US approval which is not coming.

It seems like there is a lot of talk and intimidation going on but are any of these situations more than bluffing? It’s hard to know but it seems like when people or leaders talk on a regular basis about something they mean it, but when people are playing politics they are usually bluffing. I think most players of the game know this even though the public doesn’t.

There will probably be more attacks from Al Qaeda but it might be a good amount of time before it happens here again, more likely it will happen overseas on easier targets. Iran will likely develop nuclear weapons but either use them to push their weight around to get what they want or they could possibly sell weapons to terrorists who will use them later but not at this point. Israel who might be able to stop Iran at least for a few years will not likely act to do so because they lack strong leadership and because they fear they couldn’t pay the dhort term costs of such an attack. These are allstill really bad problems but our leaders not to look at the long term problems and deal with them correctly right now to prevent them.

To those who don’t know there is the so called Christian right and there is also the Christian left. Many on the Christian right have been accused of being intolerant or stupid and clinging to religion. While there are some on the right side that may be ignorant or who seem to only want to “judge”, this is inaccurate for the most part. However the Christian right under what seems to be an attitude of “Well I’m a Christian but I don’t to leave me intellect at the door, so I must be progressive and modern and moderate. However in so doing those who look at it that way are themselves being ignorant because they aren’t skeptical and don’t critically think through things.

I’m saying this partly in respect of Christians who voted for Obama. I’m not saying Christians can’t vote for Obama or McCain or Bob Barr or anyone else. However I think Christians who voted for Obama are either foolish or they haven’t thought critically. Recently I Read a piece about how liberals have the same default view that children have on issues. For instance children think “sure I want to help the poor”. And liberals are all about helping the poor and such. It’s not that the rest of us don’t want to help the poor but when looking at a particular way to do it we see that just taking money from everybody else and setting up soup kitchens might not be the best answer but maybe getting churches to work together to feed the poor and offer job training would be better. This is just an inperfect example. But we must all think critically through things and not just think, well I’m sure everyone has the best intentions and that’s what counts.

Obama in the middle

A lot of people including conservatives are saying Obama is going to govern from the middle. This can only be wishful thinking on the part of Republicans or conservatives. Obama has no more reason to govern from the middle than the republican party needed to have a moderate as their presidential nominee. Just look at Obama’s choices for advisors and cabinet members. Rahm Emanuel super tack dog from the Clinton years, and now Greg Craig who was Clinton’s legal counsel when he was being impeached, he also defended John Hinckley Jr. There were also rumors he would appoint John Kerry or Hilary Clinton and sec of state. We already found out that Obama is likely to use executive orders to try to undo any changes Bush has made. This doesn’t sound very centrist to me. People have said Obama doesn’t have any ideas on his own and that all of his views were those of these types of advisors. The reason Obama has stumbled on talking about what he will do in office and what his policies are is because these views from these extreme liberals are in his viewpoint more to the center because his own views are much more communistic and to the left than we could imagine. If you look at Obama’s record it’s full of either far left choices or he voted present. Obama has always planned to run for president and always planned to win. He has not let all of his true beliefs out to the public but he will make full use of his time in office.

Royal Navy in firefight with Somali pirates

Finally somebody is standing up to the bad guys. While I don’t feel good about the men who died, I’m glad the navy didn’t back down and let the pirates have their way.

This is the kind of courage American politicians need to have, to stand up to pirates and dictators alike no matter where they may reside.

Unfortunately instead all we get is “leaders” who want to talk to dictators and terrorists until their blue in the face. I’m not just speaking of Obama who has said he will meet with our enemies without precondition. I’m also speaking of George Bush who conitues to hold endless talks with Iran through other countries and does the same with North Korea. Despite the fact that these endless talks go nowhere concrete and only make small steps when we offer everything but the kitchen sink and then they want the kitchen sink plus some concessions to be named later!

Unfortunately  many of the ”leaders” of Israel have had the same problem for too many years and are willing to give up everything in the name of peace.

 What these leaders don’t understand is that peace and freedom come from the sacrifices that hard working people make. I’m not talking about giving up land to terrorists, that is not a sacrifice, that is foolish and merely giving up. Sacrifices involve being brave and making the right choice. Sacrifices may cost the very lives of some citizens and other allies and yes it may cause the death of some enemies. These are the costs of freedom and peace and they aren’t cheap or to be taken lightly. ENemies should not be apoligized to simply because we exist and they don’t like it. A stong people should not worry about world opinion, but whether what their doing is right. Rather than be concerned how someone else views us we should be concerned if we can look ourselves in the mirror after making tough and difficult choices.

Everyone wants to be a leader but no one wants to lead. Leadership starts with serving others but leadership also requires that you be willing to risk embaressment and loss for the sake of doing what is right for the greater good.

This is the kind of change we need. This is the kind of leadership we need.