Archive → November 11th, 2008
A Facebook Message I Received
I recently received a message on Facebook that was clearly cut and pasted from somewhere else. I have received this from others over the past few years and At the bottom it gives authority to paste it in an email or web site so I took the liberty of doing so. I am not certain on the validity of where it originated but the main point is worthy of sharing…
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise’s wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It’s not so bad.
Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’ t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution, and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too.
But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this Happen?” (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?” In light of recent events…terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about and we said OK. Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.” Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. You may point your friends to this message or highlight it, cut and paste it to your site or e-mail.
Fit For Life
As some of you may know the Air Force has this Fit for Life, Fit to Fight campaign. This past Saturday we went out to the base and participated in a 5K run/walk. Sunday was the only one that was actively signed up but Kevin and I went with her. We often fail to get enough exercise in our daily life, especially with both of us working in an office environment. Sunday’s office actively recruited people for this event while my organization never even heard of it though we are just down the hall. Anyway, Sunday as usual is an inspiration to anyone she comes in contact with and she inspired Kevin and I to participate as well. I was very glad I did once it was over. Saturday morning was very chilly in the mid 40’s but that made it perfect as we were sweating pretty heavily by the time we were done. Special thanks to Sunday for inspiring our family to get off our backsides and do something 
.
Position Defined
As I browse through many social networking sites, I find myself taken back to 1992 when I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters in England. It was during this time when the presidential election had occurred and Mr. Bill Clinton had won. I must tell you that I am both socially and fiscally conservative meaning that I support policies that are both socially and economically conservative. As I have stated many times in the past, my measuring stick on what is right and wrong is the Bible. In fact I use the King James Bible as my source. During the 1992 presidential election I saw some traits about Bill Clinton that really bothered me. I saw him as both a social and fiscal liberal. It was his first act in office that confirmed my suspicion when he removed the restriction on the government paying for abortion at military facilities. He instituted the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy in the military relating to homosexuality in the military. This policy was a compromise though he wanted open homosexuality in the military.
These were just a few examples of my distrust of the man. My opposition to him was more socially than economic. Again, I thought he was catering to the extreme left in this country and forcing policies on the country that were not welcome except in the most liberal areas of our country. I spent eight years being angry at Bill Clinton. I genuinely hated him for his stand on issues. Many Christian friends of mine would point out to me that we are to pray for our leaders and not bad mouth them as I was doing. This only made me more angry that my own group was piling on me or so I thought. It was not until later after he left office that I realized they were right. I was so angry and full of discontent with his leadership and hostility to everything I believed that I could not even be rational. They were right in that I was wrong to hate him.
I spent eight years being angry when it was unnecessary. This was followed up by the presidency of George W. Bush. I voted for him twice and I must admit that I have been disappointed by him. My disappointment is for just the opposite reasons the media dislikes him. My problem with him is that he is not conservative enough. I was involved in electing the Republican revolution in 1994 when they promised many conservative agendas. They promised the “contract with America” with several policies they intended to pass in the first 100 days of Republican controlled Congress. The media came after them with full force. They called the agenda the “contract ON America” and successfully intimidated the Republican Senators and Representatives. They went after the then Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich labeling him as a right wing extremist. Since many in our country listen to the news media and actually believe they are neutral and have no agendas this tactic worked.
Despite having control of both houses of Congress, the Republicans were useless. They cowered to the media fearing they too would be attacked. What the Republicans failed to see was that whatever they do, it will always be painted as right wing extremism by the media. They have taken the road of appeasement as opposed to getting anything conservative done. With each election our Republican leaders have failed to deliver on promises to their conservative constituents. They have promised the world and delivered nothing. Their appeasement has worked in keeping their jobs though many in the conservative movement have reached the end of our trust of them.
John McCain was chief among these Republicans that turned on us while being a Senator. Time after time he voted on key issues with the Democrats. The media gave him the name “Maverick” and he wore it like a badge of honor. I truly believe that to this day John McCain still fails to see where he went wrong. He was elected, and reelected over and over again and turned his back on his constituents. John McCain has earned the title RINO which stands for Republican in name only by many conservatives. As time went on conservatives were left with no one to vote for. There are many like myself that are tired of voting for the lesser of the two evils. I have reached the point that I will not vote for someone just so the other candidate will not win. I think it was time for our side to lose big so they will be reminded that they do have a constituency that they owe. They will either back their constituency or not be reelected.
Along comes the 2008 election where Barack Obama wins the election. I have mixed feelings with him. There are many problems that I have with him and one of them is his mixed signals when it comes to his profession of Christianity. He claims Christianity but then back peddles when asked to clarify that he is born again or even believes Jesus’ statement that he is the way, the truth, and the life and that there is no way to get to God except through him. Another is the unwavering support for his preacher Mr. Wright that is clearly racist and preaches racism in his own church. Many times Mr. Obama claimed that he went to this church for 20 years and never had a problem. Only when the heat was applied during the campaign when several unflattering videos of Mr. Wright appeared on Youtube did Obama retract that support. It is my belief that this retraction was not genuine and Barack Obama does have the same racist beliefs as Mr. Wright. It is hard for me to imagine going to a church that preached this message for more than 20 years and continuing to go if a person did not believe it.
Putting all this aside and taking the advice of my Christian friends who earlier told me to pray for our leaders I would like to say that I am willing to give Barack Obama a chance. I am actually happy that we can say we have our first black presidents though I have extremely powerful reservation on his stand on issues. I refuse to spend the next eight years being angry like I did in 1992. I really believe God is in control and that Barack Obama can possibly be a good president with our prayers. I am tired of playing all the political games. I am tired of all the divisiveness and hate. I choose to be happy and I encourage those conservative friends around me to do the same. God is bigger than the situation and to deny that is denying his ability to reign. After all, if you think about it, if John McCain would have won, you would have more of the same lip service while turning his back on us. This election would have been another disappointment with John McCain in office as well.
This reminds me of a Veggy Tales episode that I saw when my kids were young. Veggy Tales is a Christian cartoon where talking vegetables often told a moral story illustration God’s love and power. There was an episode where one of the characters was scared of the “boogey man”. The group sang a song “God is bigger than the boogey man”. After all these years that kids show has stuck with me. I am actually singing it inside . The message of that song was so simple and is still true to this day. I am not calling Barack Obama the boogey man by any means. I do not see him as a bad man but rather a man with differing moral views than I have. Nevertheless I believe with God in control, he can be a good leader. I fully expect a lot of heat over my stand and that is fine with me. I think having faith in God is way more important than being angry and ruining my family life. The Bible said in Hebrews 11:6…
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Do you believe it? I do!
Happy Veterans Day
I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank the veterans of the United States military on this day. Our country as diverse as it is shares the freedoms that many countries do not have. The freedoms that we take for granted are often non existent some other countries. We owe a debt of gratitude to our veterans who fought for our country. Many of these veterans never saw any hostility but that does not remove the gratitude for them because we know at any time those that were in the military could have been called upon at any time. What ever the motivation, the end result was the same and that is a retention of our rights that we enjoy today.
Our country has people of differing opinions to the point of hostility. There are many in our own country that cannot muster the energy to say a nice word about our military. As contemtable as that is to me, I say this…You owe gratutude to our military for giving you the right to dissent. Our military is an all volunteer force and no one is compelled to join but somehow our military always ranks among the top in the world. Some of these people join for the opportunity to serve our country, while some join to gain a college education. Some go as a last resort during hard economic times. Whatever the reason a person joins we know that it was voluntary and no one forced them to join. The rights and freedoms that we Americans enjoy are directly related to the veterans that live next door to you. Again, I would like to express my thanks to those that joined the military for what ever reason. You have ensured our safety, our freedoms, and our rights and I am grateful.
Thank you,
Paul