- Some times' it takes Christians and "real American
patriots" that are not into fascism whatsoever to show Christians
where they are being misled or where they are "misreading the tea
leaves".
-
- Craig Roberts is a former US Marine, highly decorated
officer, editor of my book before it went to the publishers. I know that
Craig knows what it is like on the front lines' and many of the Pulpit
Bullies in America today do not even recognize the "Spiritual Front
Lines", much less real face-to-face front lines.
-
- Some people just do not get it - this nation is in a
battle for its life right now. Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights' our
freedoms' what this nation has stood for - is now in jeopardy. Not from
without, from within. What once was the world's most respected nation
is now the world's most hated nation, not for our freedoms' for our policies
and those that present "the Ugly Face of America" to the rest
of this world. Those in Washington, DC and the major corporations that
are their wealthy masters are the true ugly face of this nation.
-
- They dishonor us all as they hold themselves up high
and above the law. They make a mockery of what this nation is really all
about.
-
- The media has been sitting on the story of the past two
centuries - that being the conversion of the greatest democratic republic
the world has ever known is now rapidly headed into totalitarianism and
fascism. Readers need to remember - the media is owned by those that fully
support the undermining of you and me for the betterment of them.
-
- There is a vast Silent Majority out here that does not
intend to put up with it much longer.
-
- Washington, DC can reign itself in, "do right",
or America will reign it in.
-
- America is more of an ideal than it is a nation and that
ideal cannot be conquered for it is God given. It is more written on the
hearts of all than any piece of paper. - Karl
-
-
- Power From the Pulpit
-
- By Craig Roberts
- centurion007@chouteautel.com
- 12-14-4
-
- I know this column will step on a few toes. Good. It
is about time a few toes were stepped on.
-
- It is amazing how many emails I receive after
I publish a column. They arrive in clusters' either praising what I wrote,
or attacking. The ratios so far have been about 98% pro, and 2% con. I
imagine this column will increase the 'con' emails substantially, for I
am now attacking a sacred cow.
-
- I am writing this just after I attended church.
It is Sunday, and once again I have listened to a sermon that sounds almost
like the sermon I heard last Sunday, and the Sunday before. It is as if
there is a computer program that the preacher keys into, clicks a few buttons'
and the computer shakes up the words and then prints out the sermon. They
always seem to address the same issues: how to conduct yourself, how to
conduct your marriage, how to raise your family, how much to tithe, and
in Christian churches' how to be saved.
-
- All of these things are important. But there
are other things that need to be addressed by preachers that are never
touched upon. More about that in a moment.
-
- It seems like our 'organized religion' has
become regimented to a point that you can almost set your watch by events
in the church service. In the church I attend, which is Southern Baptist,
we have opening prayer, followed by announcements' followed by 25 minutes
of music and choir, followed by a few minutes of greetings and hand shaking,
then the offering, followed by the sermon, then alter call, a closing
prayer, and quite often, we run past noon for baptisms - which means the
Methodists beat us to the restaurant and get all the good chicken first.
-
- It's the same every Sunday. And when we travel we find
not only that the other Baptist churches seem to be following almost the
exact same blueprint, but the same messages on that particular Sunday!
-
- Ever wonder why when you watch the evening
news and you change channels' the talking heads seem to be telling the
same news story and at the same time? It's as if they have their scripts
all issued from the same source. It appears to me that our churches do
the same.
-
- Maybe that's by design. As one who is suspicious
of too many coincidences' I can't help but wonder if there are conspiracies
in the church hierarchy to keep pastors muzzled in certain areas' and on
a limited track on what they can preach on these days. In other words'
have the shepherds of the flocks succumbed to political correctness?
-
- My grandfather was a Primitive Baptist preacher
in the mountains of east Tennessee. He preached two or more hours of fire
and brimstone if the notion moved him. He was not afraid to address any
issue, whether it was a known sinner in the congregation or a corrupt official
in Washington. His church was one place where he did not hesitate to mix
politics and religion if he felt that politics was interfering with our
freedom to practice our faith. There was not such a thing as 'separation
of church and state' in those days. There were no computer programs that
conveniently printed out politically correct, non-offensive, safe-to-preach
sermons. In fact, I do not remember him ever even reading from notes.
He just spoke his heart, and his measuring stick had one scale that ranged
from right to wrong. It was simple, plain, country preaching. All black
and white, no gray areas.
-
- Today things are different. We have ministers
who are actually afraid to get into areas that might be 'dangerous.' They
avoid certain topics so that they do not offend certain special interest
groups or government officials. They fear the Internal Revenue Service
and its prohibition against a 'tax-exempt church' taking a political stand.
They are afraid to address the growing activist homosexual movement, the
attacks on Christianity in our public institutions' attacks on the Boy
Scouts' prayer in school or any other public place, the growth of Satanism,
the growing threat of militant Islam, the United Nations' the New World
Order agenda, the infiltration of our government by international socialists'
NEA control of our schools' globalism, the threat of our alien invasion
of our southern border, the attacks on exhibiting the Ten Commandments'
a Cross' or any other religious symbol in public.
-
- The sermons preached in too many churches
these days are given by what I call 'Woosie Preachers.' Woosie is a term
we used in the military for weak, non-assertive, non-committal individuals.
Therefore, a woosie preacher (or minister, priest or rabbi) is one that
either does not have a firm grip on national and world affairs and the
dangers they pose - and does not want to learn them, or simply is afraid
to address them from the pulpit. The former class is 'hear no evil, see
no evil, speak no evil.' The latter class is comprised of individuals who
are simply in the 'church business' and not willing to make waves that
might offend anyone, or cost them their jobs.
-
- Jesus made waves. He was not afraid to address
politics' nor was he afraid to stand up to the organized religion of the
day. In fact, in Matthew 21: 12-13, he threw the money changers out of
the temple. He didn't 'ask' them to leave, he threw them out bodily. Are
there any ministers today who would do the same?
-
- American history is filled with pastors and
ministers who stood firm against attacks from outside, whether it be a
foreign power or our own government. Some ministers took up muskets and
fought in the Revolutionary War, which was considered treason by the Crown
at the time. Others bravely marched into the fields of battle in the war
of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World
War I and II, Korea and Vietnam. I remember two chaplains at Da Nang,
one a Christian and one a Jewish Rabbi, who teamed up and visited the wounded
in the hospital, then would catch a helicopter out to the field, land in
a hot LZ, and minister to the wounded and dying while under fire. They
both carried .45 pistols in their kit bags' just in case. They were what
we called 'fightin, chaplains.' Where are such men in our civilian churches
today?
-
- As an example, I once asked a preacher what
he would do if a law was written legalizing homosexual marriage, and then
a homosexual couple walked into the church and demanded that he perform
a marriage for them, or they would file a discrimination complaint. He
replied, "I would not perform the ceremony, of course." I then
said, "well, if the law said that if you refused, the government would
arrest you and close the church, what would you do?" His reply: "I
don't know. That's different. Of course we wouldn't want to lose the church."
What he meant was he didn't want to go to jail, or lose his job. Forget
what the Bible says in Romans 1: 24-32, or Leviticus 20:13.
-
- Another preacher would fall back on the old
crutch 'Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.' To that I responded that
this was not the Roman Empire, and that the difference now is that our
government is supposed to be We the People, not some dictator or emperor.
Government, according to our Constitution, is you and me. It originates
in the family first, then progresses DOWN to local government, then the
state, then the homeowner's association in Washington known as the federal
government. But somehow the perception of this has changed over the years
and we are led to believe in our government school system that the federal
government is the supreme entity in the land instead of the obedient servant
of the people as designated in the Constitution. I found myself explaining
that Article One of the Bill of Rights addressed freedom of religion and
not freedom from religion, and that the Tenth Amendment specifically prohibited
government from making any law contrary to the limits of the Constitution
or the Bill of Rights. I further explained that the Supreme Court stated
that any law passed in violation of the 10th Amendment or the limits of
the Constitution was "repugnant, and would upon inception, have the
force and effect of no law at all."
-
- He stared at me blankly, then said "what
does that have to do with me?"
-
- The responsibility of preachers' pastors'
and other church leaders is to educate the flock, and warn of dangers.
Christianity and Judaism has been under persecution and attack throughout
the centuries. But both are under more assaults today by our own government
and media than ever before, and at the same time have less resistance from
the pulpit than any time in our history. I once asked a Jewish Rabbi what
he planned to do regarding an upcoming gay pride parade and march on city
hall, considering what was written about homosexuality in the Old Testament.
His reply? "Things are different now. We accept things now that were
not accepted in the past."
-
- Really? Since when? And who decided this?
-
- It is time we demand of our church leaders
that they begin addressing the issues that threaten us most. If they don't
identify the threats to our "freedom of religion," then who will?
They should be leaders. Outspoken. Firm. Brave. Standing in the Armor
of God as addressed in the Book of Ephesians. First they must become educated
in the topics that need addressing. Then we must encourage"demand
if necessary - that they speak of them. They must preach with courage
and conviction and not worry about offending a few "pew warmers"
or back row tithers' or the ACLU, or government bureaucrats' or the Devil
himself.
-
- I fear today we are experiencing the 'luke-warm
church' written of in the Book of Revelation (Rev 3: 15-16). You know,
the one God spews out of his mouth for being neither hot nor cold?
-
- The pulpit should be a fortress of power,
not a soapbox for woosie preachers.
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