A Call for an Exodus from the Democratic Party

Bishop E.W. Jackson calls Christians and Jews to exit the Democratic Party because their official position on same-sex marriage and abortion.  He exposes the desperate lies that they having been using to prevent blacks from changing their minds.  Excellent speech.

Chuck Colson, 1937-2012

I would like to pay tribute with this blog post to Chuck Colson.  Chuck was best known for his role in the Watergate scandal and his subsequent conversion to Christianity after being arrested for crimes in connection with the scandal.  He admitted that what he did was wrong and spoke out against corruption in government from then on until the day he died.  He said that he deserved to go to jail for what he did and was thankful to God that he was caught because he might never have come to know Jesus otherwise.

Most of the rest of what I know about Chuck comes from a book called God and Government which he authored.  The book has a little of what you might expect from a social conservative, but a lot that you might not.  He did a good job a relating how easy it is to become corrupted by power.  Besides giving his own personal testimony, he reminds us about various freedom movements around the world like the Solidarity movement in Poland, the overthrow of the Marcos government in the Philippines, and the toppling of the Soviet Union.  He talked about Dietrich Bonheoffer, a Christian who refused to give in to the government takeover of the Christian church in Nazi Germany.  He also recounted some great stories about events which lead to an easing of tensions between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland.

Like a typical socially conservative writing, he speaks out against some of the violations of the rights Christians and the erosion of morality and integrity in the government.  One example he gave was a case where a church decided to expel one of its members because of an admitted case of adultery.  The government got involved and a judge decided to force the church to take the unfaithful church member back, despite the lack of repentance.  He also opposed same-sex marriage and abortion.

Of course, I don’t agree with everything he said in the book.  For example he uses the word “Democracy” incorrectly and his interpretation of First Amendment is quite flawed.  I also strongly disagree with his embrace of preemptive war (and particularly in the case of the Iraq War).

However he didn’t completely fit the mold of a typical social conservative. 

He expressed some libertarian-leaning views in the book.  For example, he opposed three strikes laws and supported reducing or eliminating sentences for non-violent offenses (e.g. drug offenses).  He talked about how he traveled all around the world making speeches and talking to prison officials to persuade them to improve living conditions for prisoners.  He opposes the torture of prisoners of war.  This issue is not exactly first and foremost on the minds of most Christians today, but nonetheless it is an important issue and it was a great work for the Lord he did.  His efforts in this regard went hand-in-hand with his rehabilitation based prison ministry.

Another way in which he was a little different is that he believed that just because a candidate is a Christian that does not necessarily mean that that candidate is the best choice.   

And although he opposed Darwinism, he believed in the Big Bang Theory, touting it as proof of the existence of God.  This is because the Big Bang Theory includes a beginning of the universe.  The Steady State Theory was an earlier theory which had been embraced by the scientific community and did not include a beginning.

There was one quote from the book that I particularly liked.  I can’t remember it word for word but it went something like this:

There is no such thing as a government which doesn’t legislate morality.  All laws legislate someone’s idea of morality.

Rest in Peace, Chuck.

Monumental the Movie

I haven't yet seen Kirk Cameron's new movie, but people have been buzzing about it.

Find out more at:

www.monumentalmovie.com

Ron Paul at the Faith and Freedom Conference

I agree with everything that Ron Paul said in this speech, except possibly the part about government not being able to do anything unless you can do it. (What about the exacting justice on criminals?)

But more importantly, I am still waiting for him to renounce his cosponsorship of the Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention Act.  This bill (which did not pass) would have allowing federal tax dollars to be spent on syringes for drug addicts.  He cosponsored this bill in the 110th and 111th Congress (2007 and 2009).  If he will renounce it, then I will support his candidacy (albeit somewhat reluctantly).  It is unacceptable for me to support a candidate who supports a bill which encourages sinful behavior.  (The bill has not been introduced into the 112th Congress yet and probably won't be, though its sponsor is still a member of the House of Representatives.)

Faith & the Election Booth

A Further Analysis of the 2008 Election


The 2008 election of 2008 took place two weeks ago today. People will be analyzing and reanalysing this election for a long time. I recently read a news article on OneNewsNow.com, “Barna breaks down the 'faith' vote" and the Barna Group survey mentioned in the article. I have framed the results showing how various sectors of the American population voted and why they did so. I focused primarily on the discussion based voters faith or religious affiliation.

I took most of the information form the Barna Group report, “How People of Faith Voted in the 2008 Presidential Race” as found on their website. I extrapolated or estimated the population percentages where Barna did not provide the percentages, I noted those where I did that with an asterisk *)

Here is a summary of the results of the Barna survey results.

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Evangelical Christian Voters (7% of the Nation's Population)
McCain 88%
Obama 11%

Primary reason/motivation for supporting the candidate they selected:
Candidate’s position on moral issues (40%)
Candidates political experience (23%)
Candidates character (15%).
Economic policy (7%)

Born-Again Christians Voters (35%* of the Nation’s Population if you do not include Evangelicals)
McCain 57%
Obama 42%

Primary reason/motivation for supporting the candidate they selected:
Candidates political experience (20%)
Ideas about the country’s future (18%)
Candidates character (17%).
Economic policy (17%).

Non-Born Again Christian Voters (58%* of the Adult Population):
McCain 36%
Obama 62%

Primary reason/motivation for supporting the candidate they selected,
Ideas about the country’s future (28%)
Economic policy (16%)
Candidates political experience (15%)

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The Barna Report further breaks down the vote by the following categories: Protestant, Catholic, Atheist, Other Non-Christian Faith.

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Protestant (61%* of the adult U.S.A. population)
McCain 53%
Obama 46%

Catholics (24%* of the adult U.S.A. population)
McCain 43%
Obama 56% (This is very T R O U B L I N G)

Atheists & Agnostics (10% of the adult U.S.A.population)
McCain 23%
Obama 76%

Non-Christian Faith (e.g., Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, 5% of the Adult U.S.A. Population)
McCain 36%
Obama 62%

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CONCLUSIONS:

Evangelicals are very different from every other voting faith sector. They differ dramatically from born-again Christians as well as Protestants. Moral issues remain the top motivator and reason to vote for a candidate. The majority of Catholics voted for Obama. This may, in part, be due to the high percentage of Hispanic voters who also voted for Obama. Hispanics tend to be overwhelmingly Catholic.

You have Evangelical voters on one end of the political spectrum and voting 9 to 1 for McCain, while on the other end of the spectrum, Atheists and Agnostics voting 4 to 1 for Obama. One of the conclusions of the Barna Group study was that Obama won 2/3s of the moderate or lukewarm middle (my terms).

Finally it seems that the Atheist/Agnostics, which represent on 10% of the population, have influenced America more than the Evangelical 7%. The culture war being fought the last 50-100 years is being won by the godless. They are apparently more committed to their cause than we evangelical Christians are. Obama is just the frosting on a cake that has been baking intensely for the last 5 decades. This should gives us pause to reflect and to recommit ourselves to the cause of Christ, which is indubitably more worthy than any other.

Human Cloning, Politics & Faith

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The following is my response to two Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch Newspaper editorials, both which were published on Friday, June 6, 2008. One was involved human cloning "Veto Justified" and the other dealt with politics and faith "Pray for Change."

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To the Columbus Dispatch Editors:
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So you approve of the Governor’s support of embryonic stem cell research including cloning of human beings? This is murder, the shedding of innocent blood, and you and the Governor are accessories to the act of murder. You should go out of business and the Governor resign from office and be defrocked as a “minister”. This is worse than anything the former Attorney General Marc Dann or the former Governor Bob Taft did while in office.

Where do you get that idea that the majority of the American people feel that embryonic stem cell research is morally defensible? You are frauds because you include adult stem cell research with embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). Even if the majority of Americans believe ESCR was moral, it does not make it so. God has promised that the land will cast out its inhabitants for such activity (Leviticus 18:20-30). The shedding of innocent blood pollutes the land. It will bring the wrath of God and the judgment of God against the state of Ohio.

John McCain is a profane individual who gives no honor to God. Likewise, the Columbus Dispatch editors are not much better. In concurring with his rejecting the two pastors that he renounced, you both renounced God Himself.

Barack Hussein Obama is even worse than McCain. He is a pseudo-Christian whose claim to Christianity is the fact that he attends church. You can also put a horse in a garage and call it an automobile. It still is a horse. Rev. Wright (Wrong) said, “God damn America” and Obama is just the man to do it. He can change whatever blessings from God we have into curses. Furthermore he wants to continue what President Carter started and President Bush continued in giving God’s land (Israel) to the heathen (Palestinians) supposedly in exchange for “peace”. This action curses America. Barack Obama wants to do this with the promotion of homosexuality, abortion, partial birth abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and denying people the right to profit from their labor. He has chosen death instead of life (The Bible, Deuteronomy 30:19) and intends to lead America deeper into a culture of death. What Obama promotes is self destruction.

Religion is in politics. All of our rights come from God, not from government. All power comes from God. A person’s politics is based on his personal theology. If his theology is bad his politics will also be bad. The existence and greatness of America is based on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Declaration of Independence from Great Brittan there is also a declaration of dependence on the Judge of the whole earth. That Judge is the Lord Jesus Christ. As we dishonor Him in our nation we forfeit our very right to exist as a nation.

Note: As of today my comments though submitted to the newspaper last week, not surprisingly were not published by the newspaper.