My feeling on Benghazi

Why did the President send Ambassador Rice out on the morning talk shows if she had nothing to do with Benghazi?

If he gave the order to do whatever needed to be done to save the Americans then what happened to these orders?  Were they just ignored?  Why did he watch everything go down the way it did and then act as if this was in protest to some movie when he knew it wasn't?  Why did he go on for two weeks blaming it on a film and go so far as to apologize for the film, which he knew had nothing to do with the attacks, in front of the UN?

Why did they sit on the information on the drones being shot down by Iran and the Petraeus scandal until right after the election?  Why are we still getting the run around about what really happened at Benghazi? What is going on here?  Does the President not have any control over anything?

I have alot of unanswered questions and every day that passes, I have less and less confidence in this administration.  This is not a game we are playing.  Four lives were lost.  We deserve the truth.

A Party Hostile to me

I am hearing a lot about how those in the establishment (or within the beltway) believe that the GOP needs to moderate its views on abortion and immigration.  I will just say that for me, especially the abortion issue, will cause me to seriously look at what I am supporting.  The truth is a Romney nomination as the GOP Presidential candidate was a no-win for those like me, evangelical, pro-life, against amnesty, right-wing section of the Republican party.  They have been wanting to get rid of us for a while.  Every lost election for the GOP the last few years, it has been the right-wing, evangelical section that has been thrown under the bus.  They only "court" us when they need us, such as in 2004 when the "value-voters" won it for Bush.   I voted for Romney because I don't think our country will survive, not in its current state, under four more years of Obama.  Should Romney have won, the establishment crowd would be telling us that they can win with a moderate because, basically, those like me just line up and vote for them because the alternative was so bad.  Because Romney lost, we are also getting blamed, even though he won independents (which was the target group he was going after).  I guess they really needed us conservatives after all since it was many conservatives who stayed home because they didn't believe there was a "real" difference between the candidates. So we get blamed for that one too and now those "in-the-know" are saying views on abortion and immigration need to be moderated.   Either way, win or lose for Romney, the right-wing of the party was going to get thrown under the bus.

So what is my response to this.  Well, for now I am just going to sit back and see what happens.  If they do decide to change these views, I think you will see an internal war and will see a mass exodus from the party. Since my state primaries are closed, the options for me are very limited.  I can either continue to support candidates who espouse my views and do that until there are none left for me to vote for or I can change my party affiliation to independent.  Time will only tell what I will do.

I do believe this election opened a lot of people's eyes to the fact that just because someone is a Republican doesn't mean they are a Christian.  And now with many "insiders" within the GOP willing to throw evangelicals under the bus, I hope that many more eyes will be opened.  I have said before and I will say it again, no political party will save our country.  Only God can do that. Are you still praying for revival?  I am.

Tuesday night dealt a major blow to America.  It was such a large blow that I expect a completely different country then the one I grew up in.  Some may challenge this outlook but I dare them to look at what is happening within just a few days of Obama's reelection.

Companies like Pepsi, Ericsson, US Cellular, Bristol Myers, St. Jude, ING, Iberia, Caterpillar, Boeing, and many more have already declared they will have to lay off employees.  Why are we having these mass lay-offs?  Simple, incoming taxes, with one of the largest being Obamacare.

Michelle Malkin wrote a great article warning of these massive layoffs.  The amazing thing is that even Yahoo is acknowledging that taxes will be raised in an article written before the elections What you won't see, however, is any of this get laid at the feet of the President who has actually said he would veto any bill that reached his desk that didn't include a tax increase. In fact, this same article states that the President has vowed to raise taxes on the top wealth owners to almost 40%.  Now I am no tax scholar and so I would appreciate help on this but isn't that just covering federal tax?  What about coupling that with things such as the fact that California voted to raise taxes on those making $250,000 a year?  That just seems a bit much, especially when we need the job creators to create jobs.

What I see coming is higher unemployment.  However, I also think we might see these numbers manipulated just a bit.  Call me cynical, but I think the powers that be will try to protect the President as much as they can.  Why would they do this?  Because if things happen the way many are predicting, we will see that Obamanomics doesn't work and the GOP will clean up in 2014.  Of course, that will depend on if they can figure out that the reason they lost was not because they don't look like Democrats but the fact that they don't look like Republicans, you know, the party of small government.

I expect another uprising from the American people.

What Did Jesus Do - Politically Speaking

So, I have thought alot about the verse from Romans 13:1 that calls us as Christians to submit to governing authorities and there are a few things I would like to say on the subject. First of all, I know that the Bible is demonstrated in the life of Christ and so I want to examine the world Jesus lived in and his reaction to it. I also want to say for people to look at the word "submit." This is a word that is used in relationships between the husband and wife. In a marriage, a woman is to be submissive to her husband but not in such a way that we are to be a doormat. We can voice an opinion, especially one that affects the whole family, but when the final decision is made, it rests on the shoulders of the husband. I apply the same to government. The truth is too, I would argue that our "governing authorities" happen to be the Supreme Law of our land, the Constitution. The office of the President and even the offices of our congressmen and supreme court justices are bigger than one person. The ultimate power in the government that we have been blessed to live under belongs to the people. We are to hold our government officials accountable. I would also argue that I do not think it is right for Christians to break the law by not paying taxes and things of that such. I believe the Bible is very explicit in that regard. But, living in our blessed country, we can and should speak out. If we do not speak out as Christians, who will? We cannot expect non-Christians to speak out for us.

Now, what did Jesus do? First, remember what the Jewish world was like at this time. Yes, the Romans were ultimately over Israel but, for the most part, they were a self-governing people. Think of it in the way that Great Britain is over Canada, yet Canada is self-governing. The Jewish political world, first of all, was so intertwined with the religious world, that it is absolutely something that we cannot even fathom. We have nothing to compare it to. The Jewish political system was divided into three factions 1) the Sanhedrin-kind of like our Supreme Court (we really don't see too much of them until Jesus' trial) 2) the Saduccees- most comparable to our Senate. They wanted to be buddy-buddy with the Roman government and were a little more high-class. Then there were 3) the Pharisees- closely resembling our House of Representatives. They were known as the "people's party." The Pharisees knew the Law backwards and forwards and told the people how to follow the law and what the consequences were when they did not follow the law. These were also the ones that Jesus had the most run-ins with.

Remember when Jesus was tried and "convicted," Pilate was the one that "represented" the Roman government. Even though history has not been kind to him, Pilate tried to "wash his hands of an innocent man's blood." The Roman government wanted the Jewish rulers to decide what to do with Jesus because they did not feel he had done anything wrong. Remember also that one of the things Jesus was accused of by the Jewish leaders was inciting revolution against the Roman government. The basis for this accusation was the large crowds that followed him and the radical ideas he was espousing. Jesus was innocent! So why would they accuse him of this. He was threatening the Jewish leaders very authority!

We know the people that Jesus confronted the most were the Pharisees. Remember, these were basically the ones who interpreted the law for the people. He slammed the Pharisees all the time for two things. 1)Misleading the people on the interpretation of the law (the rules of the Sabbath for one) and 2) the Pharisees themselves not adhering to the Law that they expected the people to follow. I actually see parallels between what the Pharisees of Jesus' day were doing and what the lawmakers of our day are doing. Even though the Jewish people were looking for a Messiah to overthrow the Roman government, that is not what Jesus did. And I would argue that it is because you cannot legislate people to do right. Instead, he went after people's hearts and called on the church and the individual to affect change. Just because government promises to take of the less fortunate does not negate our responsibility to do so and yet that is what is being espoused today. I would also just like to point out that by going after the various facets of the Jewish religious system, Jesus was also directly going after the political system.

As Christians, we are to submit to our governing authorities, but that does not mean that we are to be quiet. We live in a Democratic Republic. We have a responsibility as a citizen of this great nation to speak out and let our voices be heard, either through peaceful protest, through writing our representatives, or through voting. And as voting citizens, we should always vote responsibly. How will we know who best represents our values if we do not keep abreast of what is happening in our world and hear what different people have to say.

Above all, yes we pray. But we do not use this as an excuse to keep our head buried in the sand.

"There is no greater tragedy than doing nothing for fear of doing too little." Anonymous.

My Biblical journey through the world of politics

So, I am giving fair warning to anyone that reads this: I am going to take you on my spiritual journey through the world of politics. What I mean by this is that I have decided to let you in on the struggles that I have dealt with as I have tried to follow Christ and be involved in politics. You will travel with me as I examine subjects from a Biblical perspective and mesh that in with some common sense along the way. I will look at things such as the role of government, is "social justice" biblical, is there any point which a people can rebel against their government, is the Constitution Biblical, what should the role of women be in government, and important issues of our day. I will also take a break from this every once in a while to address something I feel warrants a blog post. You will also hear me talk about Sarah Palin on my blog quiet often. I really like her and I think she has a lot to offer the world of politics. You don't have to agree with me, I am perfectly ok with that. You also don't have to agree with my conclusions on issues and that is okay, just be sure that you know that you can back it up biblically.

I also want to take this time to just say that people need to be wary of things going on in our political world but also in society in general. I have seen alot of conservatives try to convince the media that they are just as intellectual as the far-left. As a conservative, we will never be seen as equals on the intellectual scale because in the eyes of the far-left, if we were equal with them, we would have come to the same conclusions as them and we would now be far-left idealists. In Proverbs we find that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is important because it is when we truly know God and fear Him, not in a way that we are afraid, but more in a way that we respect and are in awe of Him and all of His powers and, yes, in some ways are afraid, afraid of His judgement. The beginning premise must be the Lord. Therefore, when we stick with what the Bible says about specific issues, we will more than likely never be viewed as the intellectuals of the world. In Matthew, Jesus says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." In 1 Corinthians it states, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty"

If you are looking for approval from the world for being a conservative and strictly sticking to the things that are taught in the Bible, you will be looking for a long time. While we may have many degrees in an educational sense, we will never be viewed as intellectual. Like I said, in order for us to be viewed as intellectuals in the world's eyes, we would have to abandon everything that is taught in the Bible. The Bible lifts up the individual and gives us the power to make good choices and bad choices. Jesus taught us to take responsibility for ourselves and to look out for the less fortunate. The problem comes in when we start to examine how we are expected to take care of the less fortunate and I will be examining that in later posts. I hope you will come on my journey with me.

Spiraling Downward

I have really started to do my homework on a lot of stuff that has gone on in the last hundred years or so with our national government. I have a degree in political science, so I have always been interested in politics, but it has not been until the last few months that I have really been researching things. What I have found is that our nation has been heading in the wrong direction for the last hundred years. This is very disturbing to me and if you want to know what things kind of started it all I would encourage you to look at entitlement programs, into the Federal Reserve, and into the constitutional rulings that have been issued by the Supreme Court. I know this may sound overwhelming, but you need to know these kind of things to know how much of your freedoms have actually been infringed upon. I will do as much as I can through this blog to take you on the journey that I have been on and the first thing I would recommend is to read the book titled, "Who Killed the Constitution?" It is a little on the legal side but in terms you can understand. It is an excellent look at the dismantling of our constitution. Each person must pay attention to their local elections and their state elections. Be sure you know the issues you are voting on and the people you are voting on. The states have more power than the federal government, yet we have not empowered our state officials to exercise these powers. We must empower our local officials.

Jesus, a socialist?

I, personally, am so tired of people saying that Jesus Himself was a socialist. The truth is that if Jesus had wanted to enact change through the government, He would have done so when He was here on earth. I also think that for others, who are not Christians, to say that Jesus promoted hatred of certain groups of people is simply not true. We are all sinners; it's just that some of us have chosen to ask forgiveness of our sin. This does not give us as Christians the right to demean someone else because of their sin. Remember, but for the grace of God, there goes I. This is so true. We are called to live above reproach. Jesus took the ten commandments a step further for His followers to follow. The reason I say this is because we must take back our "image" if you will from the government and from the media. In all actuality, I don't know if this can be done, but we must not let government officials or media personalities tell us what or who Jesus was, we must discover this truth through our Bibles and through our church. The church needs to step up and lead and not sugar-coat everything. Challenge Christians to truly live out the things that Christ tells us to do and the way the Bible tells us to live. We have let the government take over areas that were to be for the church and we have sat by and let it happen. In fact, in my opinion, many churches no longer feel the need to help the less fortunate and instead show them to some government agency to receive help. We have allowed the government and the media to tell us that because we don't believe a certain way, we are not compassionate. If we follow Jesus' lead, this is an absolute lie straight from the pits of hell and yet our churches are silent. We cannot expect the government to be compassionate and yet this is the view that is being put out there. Let's win this and make this argument our own.

I also want to vent about one more thing. I am tired of the actors in hollywood telling us about their opinions on politics and how we should live our life when they are all living Jerry Springer lifestyles, with the exception being that they have money. I am saying this with all sincerity and not being sarcastic; these people really need Jesus. He IS the answer, not government.