- "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness. Woe to those who are
wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight." Isaiah
5:20
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- November 2-04, saw the election for a President of the
United States of America. The media presented this as Republicans vs.
Democrats;
Red vs. Blue states; Jackass vs. Elephant; New Age-Pagan-Agnostic- Atheist
vs. Bible Believing-Church Going-Evangelical-Fundamentalist-Catholics.
There was something for everyone.
-
- Just as public relations firms sold Gulf War I with its
tales of rapes and babies in incubators thrown on the floors of hospital
nurseries; so too, the selling of a candidate for office is not too much
different. In other times it was called propaganda. Today's world, has
stables of 'experts', from high powered public relations firms who present
the message. Retired politicians turned lobbyists, bleary eyed dusty
generals,
think tank suits, and academia. All gave the same message of
'liberation-democracy-the
monster Saddam-we're safer-we must stay the course-contain the
terrorists-ad
nausea".
-
- The questions that need to be asked aren't. How is it
in a nation of some 270 million people; we are only given the choice of
two rich men, both graduates of Yale, both belonging to the same societies,
both for war, both for various trade policies (outsourcing jobs), both
with government medical coverage (which we pay the bulk of), and both far
removed from rusted, shuttered mill towns (Ohio for one), minimum wage
of $5.15 an hr (NH), eviction notices, shut-off notices, child care,
prescription
costs, fuel and food costs? Both parties did their best to keep any third
party-fourth or fifth dutifully excluded. We have a multitude of cereals,
soap detergents, soups, meats, beer, and snacks to choose from; but only
two men for the most important job in the world!
-
- How is it that these past four years have seen millions
losing their jobs, multi-millions without health care, fuel prices
skyrocketing,
thousands of Iraqis and soldiers killed, beheadings, shredded and limbless
children, depleted uranium poisoning, approximately 210 billion expended
thus far, no accountability on no-bid contracts, social programs cut, taxes
rising obscenely, nursing homes closing, genetically altered foods,
massive
cut backs in environmental protections, thievery of jobs and pensions by
the corporate industrialists, privatization of water, etc, and we're
supposed
to believe that "Values" is the number one concern?
-
- Gays, guns and God; not war, health care, jobs, treaties,
or unfunded mandates (Leave No Child Behind)! The message from this
election
is supposedly: "You'll have to pry this gun from my cold dead hands,
keep those faggots and lesbians away from God-fearing folks. Our White
God will kill all those Arabs even if we have to turn the place to glass!
Evil must be erased from the face of the earth by cluster bombs, bunker
busters, Daisy Cutters, missiles, tanks, micro-wave melting machines, guns
and rockets. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! Anyone (sinners)
who disagree must be caged, clubbed, gassed, shot with stun guns, pepper
pellets (sure some might die), and arrested."
-
- I believe in gun rights and that abortion has no place
in the legislative or judicial process. A decision such as this should
be left to a woman being fully informed, conferring with her doctor, and
making the moral choice. God is not a puppet master! Man is given free
will in all that he/she chooses to do. To insist or dictate otherwise is
playing God. Same goes for one's choice of lifestyle. The Pharisees
followed
all the legalities of the 'law' and were called "sons of vipers, as
whitened sepulchers filled with dead men's bones". They were sparkling
on the outside but rotten within. I feel that what many speak of as
religion-values
and morality is nothing more than pious self-righteousness. They have
reduced
Jesus to a moral policeman with religion being an outward conformity to
social/political correctness. This is what happens when we reduce God to
where we are rather than to be lifted up to where He is.
-
- Frankly I think that Jesus would have little to no
interest
in the politics of our day. He said, "You will know them by their
fruits". One of which is Peace! If Jesus were to walk amongst the
people of the earth today I fear that the red states would be pretty low
on the list. Most likely, given the various stories and parables in
Scripture,
He would comfort and touch little Ali's tortured body- shredded in our
"Shock and Awe". Perhaps He would lift the lifeless footless
child from an old man's arms and touch the son of a soldier suffering birth
deformities from poisons his father suffered in war.
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- He would touch the untouchables, feed the hungry, set
the captives free in Guantanamo- Abu-Ghraib, speak to police that would
club their neighbor, sup with the homeless, comfort those with AIDS, visit
with the forgotten; and rebuke all manner of slaughter in the Holy Land,
calling men to love one another, to lift one another's burdens. He would
visit those who speak in His name and know Him not! He would expose the
wolves in sheep's clothing who plunder and mislead His sheep. He would
enter the temples of the moneychangers (who profit from the Word) and say,
"Unto them it is written, My house shall be called the house of
prayer;
but ye have made it a den of thieves." Matthew 21:12-13
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- Before departing, He most likely would visit with those
deluded by the empty promises and deceptions of man. He might ask "And
how is it that you put your faith in the symbol of an elephant or ass and
not in the cross? How is it that you judge the speck in your neighbor's
eye and do not remove the beam from your own? You have taken the Word and
used it as a weapon; not to heal, to comfort, to love, and to forgive one
another. Have I not told you that many would come in My Name saying this
is the way? Have I not warned that in later times, some will abandon the
faith and follow deceiving spirits? Let us speak of evil. People will be
lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
ungrateful,
unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control,
brutal,
not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God."
-
- "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made,
ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you,
ye blind guides which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is
nothing,
but whosoever shall swear by GOLD of the temple, he is a debtor!"
Matthew 23:15-16
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- Upon His leave He would suffer the little children to
come unto Him that He might offer them hope and challenge them to bring
peace where men of craven greed, conquest, and perverse power would not.
And on a distant mountain-top (perhaps NH?) in a grove of towering pines
beside a rushing waterfall He would take one last look over a world
consumed
in destruction and weep: "Oh America, if you had only known..You are
about to reject the gift of God, and all men will reject you".
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