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Archive for April, 2006

Our society today is beleaguered by the habitually offended. People run around cowing others into compliance with their idea of what’s proper. Their mantra? “That offends me!”. Funny, no one stops to think “Perhaps the ‘offended one’ is offensive to those whom he claims are offenders!”

There are so many ways that folks claim to be offended that one can scarcely move or breath. “Your religious t-shirt offends me!” “Your patriotic t-shirt offends me!” “Your speech offends me!”

Who are the ones who claim to be offended? Atheists, liberals, moslems and illegal emigrants are some of the most vocal and visible today.

This is the way I look at the situation. I myself am a minority. I’m used to it. I was raised as a minority. Shucks, I’m a minority on various levels even. First, the land I live in is Roman Catholic. The symbols of the Roman religion are everywhere. Statues of Mary. Statues of “The Divine Child”. Statues of “The Sacred Heart” and so on and on and on. Everywhere one turns there is some symbol of the nation’s religion staring you right in the face. Hospitals, fire stations, police stations, army bases, wayside shrines and even in many of the grocery stores one will find images set up, often with floral and candle offerings around them.

This is not the way in which I worship my Lord and Creator. But does it take away from me? Does it diminish my ability to worship and serve my Lord? Of course not! I do not lose anything when others worship in the way they see fit. They can not change what is in MY heart through what they do! This is a simple fact!

On the other hand, when someone wishes to not allow me to worship according to my conscience, they take away from me. And if I were to raise a shrill voice like so many do today to bar others from their style of worship – I would steal from them. Often have I stood shoulder to shoulder with people who were saying the rosary. This is not a practice I follow because Jesus the Christ taught His disciples to pray with their minds, to not vainly and mindlessly repeat words with little thought for their meaning. (See Matthew 6) But the fact that they were repeating the rosary in what seemed to me a mechanical way took nothing away from me as a person. If I had objected to their repetitious reciting and said “I’m offended, you must stop.” I would have taken away from them.

So, why do we bow before the habitually offended? Why do we bend to their every whim? Let them learn to live and let live instead of imposing their values on others.

THUBWAF [They Hate Us Because We Are Free]

THUBWAF is a common cry these days. It’s an “explanation” of why the Arabs, Illegal Immigrants, Democrat Party, Kalifornian Radicals and about anyone else is “out to get us”. It sounds good, but is it true?

First off, are we really free? Is there within the United States of America general, widespread freedom? That is what many believe and what has been ground into our very spirits since we were young. We sing of “the home of the Free and the Brave”. We proclaim that we are free. But are we?

I submit that we are not. In fact, I’d change the acronym above to: THUBWTWAF [They Hate Us Because We Think We Are Free] That’s right. We only THINK we are free. It is an illusion for the most part.

If we were truly free we could walk through town with a rifle or shotgun over our shoulder to go hunting without someone calling the cops and their SWAT team out. If we were free we could pray to God the Creator of All before a ballgame -without being sued. If we were free we could carry firearms on board an airplane within our nation’s borders. If we were free we could check our bags at the airport with locks on them – and they would not be searched without our consent nor out of our prescence. If we were free we could travel across our nation without fearing the police would stop us and fine us or confiscate our property because we were breaking an unconstitutional law.

I could go on and on, but what’s the use? To many I’m just an irritating voice that points out the obvious – that which folks would rather not face – the emperor has no clothes on. That’s right, most americans go about their daily lives ignoring the fact that “The home of the free” is no longer. And they do not care to be reminded of that fact. We’ve given up our liberty for an illusion of safety – and ended up with neither liberty nor safety – but do not want to admit it.

Some take my comments as hate for my country. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hate not my native land – but neither do I wish her to continue enslaved to those who hate freedom – to those who wish to fetter us with laws which do nothing to ensure our freedom nor safety.

I contend that JUST laws would fetter only the lawbreakers. They would put hindrances only to those who harm others. Why must one be judged for the crimes committed by another? This is not right. If someone uses a gun to commit a crime it does not make sense to punish the millions of lawabiding citizens for the actions of one. We do not call for bans on cars because bankrobbers use them, do we? We do not call for bans on cars because they are used to transport narcotics, do we? Our laws should focus only upon those who harm others and they should leave unfettered the average citizen.

THUBWAF? No. THUBWTWAF. The very fact that we think we are free and tend to act like free men rather than serfs irritates those who would micromanage the daily life of others. Free we are not – but we COULD be if we would drop our complacency and demand the freedom that is our birthright.

I’m amazed at how my Lord and Savior’s Name is trotted out in the name of tolerance. His Name is used to justify anything from illegal emmigration to homosexuality. “If JESUS were alive today, He’d say homosexual marriage is OK.” “If JESUS were alive today, He’d say that illegal emmigration is OK.” And so on and on and on with such drivel.

I’ve got knews for folks. Jesus the Christ is VERY MUCH ALIVE today and He’s NOT in favor of either homosexual “marriage” nor illegal emmigration. He WOULD love those who are engaged in those activities – along with all the folks who are sinning in other ways too – but He would not approve of what they do.

Have you not read what He said to the woman who was committing adultery? He said “Go, and sin no more.” He loved HER – but hated the sin and told her to no longer transgress. And the same on other occasions as well. Always “Go, and sin no more.”

This is the call He makes today. For us to go about our lives – but without the sin that so easily entangles us. Do we have to approve of the sin in order to display love to the sinner? Not according to my Lord and Savior!

“The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”

– Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 11, 1787)

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The same principles as outlined above hold true for individuals. Anyone can say “Leave me alone! I want to live in peace!” but if you’ve no way to back up that statement then the violent and corrupt will do what they want. The current push by the United Nations to disarm all civilians around the world will lead to even greater abuses by governments and criminal and rebel elements. It has always been so and human nature has not changed. True neutrality must be based on the means to defend it against all comers – this is true of individuals as well as nations.

There’s a big push in the US of A these days to “Change the world!”  After all, we ARE the “light of the world”, are we not?  It should be OBVIOUS to everyone that we have the answers to ALL life’s problems.  That’s why we have rampant drug use across our land, because we are the light.  That’s why we kill thousands upon thousands of helpless newly conceived babies every year, because we are the light.  That’s why men and women are turning from what is natural to unnatural relationships with each other, because we are the light.  That’s why nearly half of all marriages in our land end in divorce, because we are the light.

Sarcasm?  Yes.  And hopefully it will help folks who read my  rantings to think a bit.  Does the world need to change?  Obviously it does.  But is the use of “military might” the way to achieve what is right?  Not really.  Yeah, I know, “They hit us first!”  That’s the rallying cry behind our current push to annihilate anyone who is different from us.  I share the indignation about the recent threat by the Afghan government to martyr a man who had become a Christian.  That’s not right.  But millions of people have given their lives over the centuries and millennia in the name of Jesus the Christ.  They have gone to their deaths bravely, never denying He Who gave His Life for them.  This is sad, to say the least, and yet their deaths have often brought about the very changes that they longed for.

We need to be careful about how we seek change.  The story told in “Through Gates of Splendor” is familiar to many now.  Five missionary men went to meet with a tribe of indians they knew of as the Auca.  They spent weeks and months preparing the way.  They offered gifts by way of a simple air drop mechanism that allowed the Auca to respond in kind.  They did everything within their power to show their peaceful intentions – and then their lives were brutally ended by the people they wished to help.

The government of the US didn’t send in bombers.  They didn’t even launch an invasion of the jungle by special forces.  The national government did nothing either.  It was the families of the slain men who brought about true justice in this case.  They went in to the very people who had killed their loved ones – and showed them love, mercy and forgiveness.  And this display brought about positive change in the lives of those who had lived in darkness.

If we want to change the Muslim mind set, we will not do so by “bombing them into submission”.  To do so is to pay them in the same coin that they have paid us – and will only confirm in their hate filled minds that we are the enemy they believe us to be – the Great Satan who would destroy their world.  If we want true peace then we must send emissaries of peace to them.  We must encourage and help men of God to go and minister to them even and Jesus the Christ ministered while He was on earth.  Even as the Apostles went forth through the world preaching Jesus the Christ and showing people how to glorify Him in their lives.

But will we do so?  It saddens me to hear men who claim to be Christian calling for the annihilation of over a billion people – because they don’t agree with their outlook on the world.  Reagan is commonly given credit for “ending the cold war”, and yet the millions of people who taught others to look to God in the face of horrible repression deserve at LEAST as much credit – because they brought about a change in the hearts of their country men.

Do we want to bring about a change in the horribly repressive Muslim mind set?  Most of us do.  But we’ll never manage it by brute force.  The few people who would remain following widespread genocide would have even deeper hatred of those who attempted such a forced change – and the problem would crop up again in the future.  To bring about real change we should turn to Jesus the Christ and ask Him what we should do.  Those who work evil will bow before Him in the last day and will be judged and condemned by His Word.  Oh that we would seek to do good in His Name and be commended on that great and awful final day.

To do things His way is not easy.  Often it leads to a path of martyrdom.  But the blood of the martyrs often waters the seeds of change.  In the words of Nate Saint who “lost” his life on the banks of a river in Ecuador at the hands of the very people he wished to help, “He is no fool who gives up that which he can not keep to gain that which he can not lose.”

May God raise up hosts amongst us to bring about change – through His means rather than through human violence.  Remember, the wrath of man does not work the justice of God.