Under Informed is Uninformed

 
For those who are paying attention, it is becoming clearer by the day that the mess we’re in can only be solved by a return to our founding principles. Removing the foundation from an edifice, no matter how high or how wide the edifice, will always result in its destruction. Since the days of Woodrow Wilson and perhaps before, America has raised generations of atheistic, agnostic, narcissistic, hedonistic, pampered infants. Now we are facing the alumni of the Karl Marx/Benjamin Spock school of ideology.

Unfortunately, with growing frequency, the very foundations for which our forefathers bled and died are crumbling in a heap of liberal, social, watered-down half-truths. The emergent church, the World Council of Churches, with its Communist underpinning, Rick Warren with his heretical teaching, and prosperity preachers who bask in the glow of their own ill-gotten gains, all have contributed to a "gospel" that bears no resemblance at all to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

At first blush, I agreed with nearly all of what the following article had to say. Then I re-read it through the prism of today’s feel-good, Kumbaya church, and highlighted what I consider to be well worth considering:

"TAKING AMERICA BACK 2010

Pastors taken to task for political apathy
'What we have in America is a preacher problem'

Posted: September 16, 2010

6:50 pm Eastern

By Drew Zahn

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

MIAMI – America has gone 'from one nation under God to a nation at war with God,' said Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, at WND's 'Taking America Back Conference.' And who's to blame?

According to a pair of speakers at the Miami confab, one of most significant answers is also one the most uncomfortable for Christians.

'As the church goes, so goes the nation; as the pastor goes, so goes the church.' Scarborough said, 'What we have in America is a preacher problem.'

Scarborough, himself a former Southern Baptist minister, told the audience his story of recognizing the need for pastors to snap out of political complacency and get involved in the cultural war for the soul of the nation.

He had attended a sexual education presentation at his daughter's high school in the 1990s, only to discover a message of sexual license and perversity that shocked him. When he brought a transcript of the presentation to his church, the building was filled with people equally stunned.

Shortly thereafter, Scarborough explained at 'Taking America Back,' he began to free his congregation from excessive church responsibilities to take up civic duties. Members of his church were elected to the school board and city council and began to reassert Christian values in the public arena.

"We just got the people in the churches to stand up and do what they ought to be doing," Scarborough said.

The story is at the heart of his founding of Vision America, but he warns that the people will not rise up and get involved unless the pastors lose their fear and apathy toward political involvement.

Doug Giles, radio host and father of the undercover video journalist Hannah Giles, brought the same challenge, but with a much sharper tone.

'Somebody who waffles, quiet as a church mouse,' Giles said, 'that cat is about as useless as a pitch pipe to Yoko Ono.'

Giles further charged, referring to the heated politics surrounding the tea party movement and the 2010 election, 'If a pastor is not part of this crucial societal throwdown … this pastor is Dr. Evil and part of the problem.'

Giles listed 10 reasons pastors don't get involved in politics and refuted every one.

He warned pastors against thinking of their duties as primarily pious and spiritual: 'Your religious liberties are disappearing like a pack of smokes at an AA clinic.'


He warned pastors not to fear losing their 501(c)3 tax-exempt status: 'You're going to compromise the gospel because you don't want to pay taxes on hot dogs? Wow."'

Pulling no punches, Giles also slammed big-church pastors who are afraid speaking out on issues of liberty and morality for fear of losing their lucrative positions: 'Christendom has its shares of money-loving hookers … bowing to cash instead of convictions.'


'Saul Alinsky loves those pastors who don't get involved politically,' Giles concluded, 'and so does the guy written about in the dedication to his book ['Rules for Radicals']. Who was that again? Oh yeah, Lucifer.'

Scarborough argued that the culture wars won't be won unless both pastors and pew-sitters are willing to roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty in the fight:

'The problem with us Christians today is that we're so afraid of offending our little ears that we've dug holes and buried our heads in them,' he said. 'The holes that the 'gays' came out of, the church went in, and it's not going to change until the church comes out.'

He wrapped up his speech with a challenge:

'If the church doesn't awaken now, if the tea party and everybody involved doesn't understand that God is at the heart of it all, then we lose,' he said.

The crowd then erupted in standing ovation with his final words, "It's now or never. It's time for the church to stand.'"

Drew Zahn makes some excellent points, and who am I to argue with a real writer? But I am not here to challenge his ability or his wisdom. I am simply coming at the matter from a different perspective. Consider this: today’s emergent church couldn’t possibly be any more involved in politics than it already is. As a tool of the far left, or Satan, if you will, it has been inexorably dragging Christians and non-Christians alike down the path to perdition. I believe this article speaks not to preachers as a whole, but to independent, fundamental, evangelical preachers who still preach the whole Gospel of Christ. Sadly, they’re becoming fewer and farther between in our world of hope and change.

Love

Granny

Is He Our Keeper?

He said it again. It is probably the only Bible passage he knows, and he doesn’t know it all that well. Or maybe he does. I heard a brief clip on the radio yesterday. It was part of his radio address, the usual canned bleeding heart drivel punctuated it with, “On this day, we also honor those who died so that others might live: the firefighters and first responders who climbed the stairs of two burning towers; the passengers who stormed a cockpit; and the men and women who have, in the years since, borne the uniform of this country and given their lives so that our children could grow up in a safer world. In acts of courage and decency, they defended a simple precept: I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.” (Emphasis mine)

How many times has a variation of this come out of his mouth in the last three years or so? Not quite as many as "Let me be clear." What comes after trillion?

Genesis 4:9 is probably one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible. After Cain killed his brother, the Lord asked him the whereabouts of Abel. Cain answered, “I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Our president has taken this and run with it. In his drive to dictate every aspect of our lives from womb to tomb, perhaps this is exactly what he does mean: Orwellian control.

I always think of a zookeeper when I hear the word keeper. A zookeeper certainly has to have complete control over his charges: lions, tigers and bears. Not to mention reptiles, monkeys and rhinos. But maybe that’s just me. However, Bill Wink of An Inconvenient Blog fame had this to say about the phrase in 2008—way before the election:

“My Brother’s Keeper

I am not my brother’s keeper

And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

So how can I make this statement: I am not my brother’s keeper, a statement that goes against the preaching of mortal men?

When GOD inquired of Cain regarding the whereabouts of his brother Able in Genesis 4:9 The LORD GOD did not answer Cain directly when he asked: Am I my brother's keeper? God did not say yes you are or, no you are not.

So just what did GOD say?

HE said: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto ME from the ground.

And from that many interpret an answer rather than heeding GOD’s response which in the first part was a question not an answer. However, in the second part of the phrase, if there is an answer, it is the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue that GOD set down for man: “Thou shalt not kill”. Then paraphrasing; What hast thou done? Thou shalt not kill they brother whose blood crieth unto ME from the ground.

An ulterior motive – control

It seems though, that in religion and for other convenient purposes, interpretation is a matter of preconceived answers to the questions.

Many want the answer to the question; “Am I my brother’s keeper?” to be yes; so in the scriptures they find the LORD’s answer affirms their preconceived yes.

I, on the other hand, do not. I do not because I do not wish to control you and I don’t accept that GOD wants me to control you either.

Keeper

The word “keeper” simply by definition allows for a lot of latitude to those who wish to be your “keeper” or by definition protector, custodian or guardian.

Will I defend or protect or help my sibling, child, wife, mother, father, relative or friend? To the extent they need me, yes, of course.

I will be there for you when you need me but I will not be your “keeper” as others want to be.

How this applies to the subverting of America

Collectivists (socialists) pass laws making me responsible for you.

Being someone’s “keeper” is a form of collectivism. Communitarians want to be your “keeper”. Socialists want to be your “keeper”. Liberals want to be your “keeper”. Only individualists want you to be responsible for you and for you to allow others the same in return.

Individualists will not pass laws requiring you to wear your seat belt, however, they will tell you what could happen to you if you don’t. But the actual hooking-up of the seat belt is your responsibility. Individualists will not pass laws requiring you to wear your safety helmet if you are an adult. Individualists will not pass laws telling you what to eat. Individualists will protect your individual rights. But those who subscribe to the philosophy of being their brother’s keeper will address all of these issues and make them a law and punish you like a child if you don’t abide.

The Ten Commandments

When I read the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments the Commandments were not directed at only a select few who were supposed to collectively enforce the Will of GOD on the remaining Israelites. But rather the Commandments were set down as Divine Guidance for each and every individual.

So just where in the Ten Commandments does it tell me I must be my brother’ keeper? No where. But there is a Commandment that tells us to let our brother live in peace.

The last Commandment states:

'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, not his manservant, not his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.' Ex. 20:17.

So what is 'any thing that is thy neighbor’s'? It is the rest of his property of course and his property goes beyond anything in a physical sense. His property includes those unalienable rights bestowed on him by his CREATOR and that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Therefore, I am not my brother’s keeper.”

Bill Wink © March 1, 2008

That about sums it up for me. Maybe Obama is right, after all. He is certainly making great strides toward achieving keeper status. His brother George should thank God Barack Obama is not his keeper.

Love

Granny