Intellectually dishonest rhetoric and hypocrisy: the new liberal doctrine

There is an overwhelming trend in the media and among liberal activist groups today to accuse all conservatives, no matter the issue, of “hate-speech,” “inciteful rhetoric,” and “racial insensitivity.” It has become the knee-jerk, go-to response to any position conservatives take on an issue when the opposition is devoid of a legitimate response. It is the modern day version of angst-ridden liberal name calling that was popular in the previous two decades. And it still rings hollow with most Americans who have recently shown significant political disapproval of the intellectually dishonest liberal elitists.

In the 1980’s, popular liberal derogatory grandiloquence regarding the Reagan tax cuts dubbed the president’s economic policy as “Reaganomics.” Clearly, the term was not used in an endearing manner. During George W. Bush’s presidency, terms like “Bush-Hitler” meant “his thugs and their brown-shirt tactics are the real terrorists” and “MIHOP” referring to the attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11, 2001 as he [President Bush] “Made It Happen On Purpose.” None of these criticisms of or responses to Republican policies or actions was ever met with opposition or accusations of disparaging racial, social, or economic epithets from the liberal media. In fact, they were largely promoted.

Since the tragic events surrounding the attempted assassination of US Representative Gabriella Giffords, the mass media in the US has been awash with accusations of conservative inciteful speechifying as a direct cause of the shooting. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was at the forefront of the accusations, holding press conferences early and often condemning conservative policies and actions, especially in his native Arizona and obviously directed at Governor Jan Brewer and immigration law SB 1070:

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” (January 8, 2011)

The Sheriff’s words did not fall on deaf ears. They fell equally on ears belonging to the morally and intellectually dishonest members of the liberal media entourage, but also on conservatives who discerned the true implications, soundly rejected the accusations levied by the progressive’s latest rock star media darling and returned fire [oops, bad allusion, sorry] with calls for the Sheriff’s immediate resignation. The liberals applauded the Sheriff’s courage and animosity toward the Arizona law, conservative talk radio and other typical liberal media talking points. Conservatives, including local talk radio host Jon Justice, shed light on Dupnik’s comments, which were ludicrous and irresponsible, at best:

“We have no idea at this point the motivation of this murderer’s act. Yet Dupnik took his moment in the spotlight to drive a political wedge into the event. They were reckless and dangerous statements made by someone who should have known better. He should have been using his time to help bring the community together. Instead his statements made Tucson appear to be a city full hate, bigotry and vitriol.” (email, January 8, 2011)

Chris Matthews, another liberal talking head who regularly espouses contempt language fanatically critical of conservative political writers, bloggers and many other conservatives, had this comparison of the Republican party and the Communist Cambodian government called the Khmer Rouge in the late 70’s, who single handedly murdered over 1.5 million Cambodians over a period of just four years:

"What’s going on out there in the Republican Party is kind of a frightening, almost Cambodia re-education camp going on in that party, where they’re going around to people, sort of switching their minds around saying, if you’re not far right, you’re not right enough.” (February 3, 2011)

We have yet to find any legitimate hateful rhetoric from credible conservative authors, bloggers, politicians, and/or talk radio personalities. We have found scores of completely dishonest accusations from politicians like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and left-wing illegitimate critics like movie director Michael Moore. Racism, bigotry, hate-speech, violence-inspiring, war mongering, genocidal… all the above have been attributed to just about every well-known conservative media type from Rush Limbaugh to Michelle Malkin.

The progressive liberal mantra is distinct. The playbook only has one play. Lie, lie, and lie. It really doesn’t matter if you falsely propagandize, because those that listen don’t often care that you are lying and most will nearly automatically chalk you up as a leftist loony or completely dismiss your rhetoric as nothing but preposterous gobbledygook. And in today's media, once you say it long enought without a challenge, it is accepted.  Liberal treachery-mongers will almost never have to answer to their statements, no matter the depth of the dishonesty or lack of credible sources. It is extreme irresponsibility and thoughtless deceit with little to no legitimate consequence. Unless you are Keith Olbermann, who began spiraling out of control with this statement on August 25, 2009, which eventually lead to his dismissal last month:

“I hate to intrude with the facts but ours is the highest rated cable news program viewers 35 and younger and the highest rated cable news program for all viewers not on Fixed News. And since Fixed News has since now migrated completely over to serving propaganda to tin foil hatters, conspiracy theorists, paranoids and racists it is not a news organization making this show the highest rated cable news program, period.” (“Fixed News” is a derogatory reference to Fox News)

So the “facts” are, as Mr. Olbermann puts it, in his opinion (now fact, not opinion) since (1) MSNBC’s Countdown (Olbermann’s former show on his former network) is the highest rated cable news program by viewers not watching Fox News, (2) Fox News caters to racists and conspiracy theorists, (3) Fox News is no longer a credible news source, (4) Nielsen should not consider Fox News a cable news outlet, therefore, Countdown is the highest rated cable news program in the US, period. If someone can follow that logic, please email the author of this blog and explain, because we are lost.

Obviously, the progressive liberals will be the first to call the conservatives a group of neophytes that would oppress the people of America through gigantic socialist health care systems, crumble our society’s morality by supporting the murder of unborn babies, insisting upon massive tax increases at a time where the economy needs real tax breaks for stimuli, printing money and buying our debt back from foreign nations further weakening the dollar and lastly, creating a giant political and socially acceptable industry, corrupted by debauchery science and malfeasant government regulation, specious penalties and fees with utterly morose outcomes for thousands of core industries who employ millions of Americans, at the same time repaying hundreds of millions of special interest dollars in the process. It’s too bad we are way too busy forging headwear out of tin foil, plotting genocidal schemes and forming massive brown-shirt militias.

The current liberal dogma leads to one fantastic conclusion: the extent of liberal hypocrisy in endless. They continue with their deceptive accusations, lies, dishonest overtones and fabricated twaddle all the while accusing the conservatives of the same. The beat of the liberal rhetoric drum is loud and inestimable. However, it is also clear that the beating of this pomposity drum is much like a tree falling in the forest. The vast majority of the public just aren’t in the forest when the tree falls. Those that are present in the forest most certainly have their arms firmly wrapped around similar woody plants of apical dominance and are likely to be contemplating the nature and effect of greenhouse gasses on the world production of patchouli oils.

Spiritual, cultural and political rebirth in Egypt, the Middle East and the US

Lord, please wrap your loving arms around the people of Egypt and the Middle East so that they may experience Your love, grace and mercy and salvation promised to us by the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It has been nearly a month since the protests in Egypt began, which resulted in a historic and rather peaceful displacement of a dictatorial leader in a predominantly Muslim country. Since Hosni Mubarak stepped down, other countries in the region have taken the example of the Egyptian people and rose up against overbearing governments. President Obama and the American people ought to take notice of these events and think long and hard about the consequences of the unrest in the Middle East as well as the effect it will have in the United States and the rest of the world.

The effects of the civil unrest in places like Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and now potentially Iran are long ranging political outcomes that could reach all the way to the Western Hemisphere. Regionally, the vast numbers of ethnic and political groups in the Middle East are scrambling to take action, most notably, the Muslim Brotherhood. The MB has been labeled with a variety of derogatory terms, like “secular,” “subversive” and “full of jihadists,” most of which have proven to be true. The danger of this organization growing in power is evident and a threat to freedom and democracy throughout the region. The threat to Israel is at its highest level in recent memory, especially if Iran decides to break promises and instigate a major political and military showdown. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is perhaps the least trustworthy of all Muslim political leaders in the Middle East, even though he does not hold Iran’s highest ruling position of Supreme Leader.

I pray that violence decreases the Middle East. Unfortunately, the Islamic faith is the only religion left on the planet that has significant factions full of fiercely pugnacious believers whose purpose in life is to perish upholding the violent beliefs of Islam and murder as many infidels they can in the process. This fact is largely ignored by most mass media on the planet, even though we see examples daily of this belief and behavior. The media also ignores the sadistic treatment of women in the Islamic world that has increasingly worsened since World War II.

Christians throughout the world need to show their support for the Lord’s work in the Middle East through prayer and support to those countries in crisis. We also need to further increase our prayers for our military service members who are now increasingly in harm’s way throughout the region. There is an opportunity for all non-Christians in the Middle East to reject the confining and abusive philosophies of modern radical Islam and accept Jesus Christ for their salvation. Let us dedicate our prayers to this end knowing that the Lord will wrap His loving arms around the people of the Middle East and bring peace to the area.

In the United States, it takes little attention to national news to realize that there is a rising tide of incongruity between the current administration’s path and the political desires of the vast majority of Americans. From the momentum and effectiveness of the Egyptian protests, there are many political groups who may choose to demonstrate domestically in the coming months. Not only is this good for the American political process, but it draws attention to the fact that our president and his staff have shown themselves to be ultra-liberal, progressive socialists with a specific agenda to exponentially grow the Federal government bureaucracy and further the government’s reach into the daily lives and pocketbooks of the American people.

Mass media across the world will not ignore US demonstrations. It is unthinkable, but the media will assuredly downplay and twist the message of the protests to the now overused “inciting rhetoric.” Many of these groups will most likely be organized by Tea Party groups who have peacefully exhibited their concern for the Obama Administration’s course with respect and dignity; such traits of which the mass media have failed miserably, especially since the Arizona tragedy.

My hope for the coming months is for peace, democracy and freedom to reign over the Middle East. I also pray that domestically, Christians and conservatives continue to march toward the common goal of less government, lower taxes and an outright rejection of the Obama Administration’s dedication to unbridled socialism and government dependence. However violent and destructive the revolution becomes in the Middle East, we will pray for peaceful resolution both in that area of the world as well as in the United States. There is much work to be done, but nothing is accomplished without God’s help.  As the scripture says, all things are possible through Christ.

Philippians 4:13

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Mark 9:23
“Jesus said unto him, ‘If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’”

Matthew 19:26
“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, ‘With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.’”

Spiritual growth in 2011

I decided to build a plan this year to grow my personal relationship with Jesus.  It is primarily based on Brian Howard's "Freedom Plan", from his Christian Business Guy website.  My plan is going to be based on three pillars of growth.  Prayer, bible study and worshipful action; prayer being meditative growth, bible study being intellectual growth and worshipful action being spiritual growth.

One thing I learned in 2010 is that anything is possible through the love and mercy of the Lord. Up until about May of last year, my life had been without the firm foundation of Jesus, without a moral accountability, without repentance or forgiveness.  My entire being was sinful, hateful, selfish and spiraling into darkness.  I had abandoned trust in the Lord.  It was a slow process, starting way back when I was in high school, and became progressively worse until my marriage ended in August of 2009.  

Through the Lord's greatness, mercy, forgiveness and grace, my life is entirely different.  I had to set aside my selfish desires and throw all of my trust and love to the Lord.  I have experienced true miracles and I owe it all to God's work in my life.  I have few very close friends to thank dearly for their influence in my life.  They were sent to me from God to be models; pillars of love, faith, honesty, truth, acceptance, repentance, forgiveness and grace.  I cannot thank the Lord enough for what He has given me.  He was always there; it took me a series of significant failures in my life to realize just how important He is to my entire being.  I am happy to say that I have made Jesus the center of my being.  I was falling, and he caught me.  I asked for his forgiveness and grace and He opened his arms and swept me away.  I asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that my heart and mind overflowed with His love and compassion; He gave me amazing brothers and sisters in Christ to respect for their love of the Lord, their compassion and to learn from their examples.  I praise Him and thank Him every day for His grace and mercy.    

Through my re-dedication to the Lord, it is clear to me that I need to be a shining example of repentance and forgiveness, of God's truth and of the Holy Spirit's presence in my life.  I want people to look at me and think about why I'm different.  I want those thoughts to trigger the Holy Spirit to move within them. The only way to accomplish that is to grow my own personal relationship with Jesus so my everyday actions, thoughts and behavior is done in praise and compassion.  I want God's work and His desires to manifest in me.  If I can grow inside, the outside of me will benefit.  Nothing would make me happier to be a reflection of the Lord's love and mercy.

Sustaining, growing and developing one's personal relationship with the Lord is of utmost importance.  It is something to be thought about and acted on every day.  As my best friend commented to me recently, "God uses the willing.  We have to be willing to surrender our selfish, sinful life and live in faith through His ways. It is not our nature to surrender to Him.  Only by surrender will we find the strength to be a living sacrifice." It requires dedication, faith and unselfishness, love and daily choices that are not in our selfish interest, but His, because His intentions are perfect.  One must be dedicated to praising Him, unconditional love of the Lord, compassion for our fellow creatures and God's word of truth.  Above all, one has to trust the Lord with every aspect of one’s life.  We have to give up our desires and let loose of our control and freely offer it to God.  He will provide.  He always does.

Meditative Growth through Prayer

As a people filled with sin, we need to focus daily on prayer.  We can grow in the Lord when we spend time meditating on trust, repentance and healthy conversation with the Lord.  He will listen and answer your prayers.  In this regard, I am going to take a page from many others before me and dedicate at least three fifteen minute sessions of prayer to my daily regimen; before work, at lunch and at home before bed.  My prayer time will be based on two primary goals.  First, thankfulness for my life, my salvation and the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon me.  The second half of my prayers will be of repentance for sin and guidance in my daily decision making.  Most of us have daily prayer needs to combat temptations, requests for guidance, patience, clarity of thought, enlightenment and good decision making as well as other daily challenges.  I'm sure there will be days where more dedicated prayer time is needed.  Not to say that other times of the day will be devoid of prayer, because there are always other times that the Lord deserves thanks and thoughtful requests for guidance.  

Intellectual Growth through Bible Study

One cannot possibly take in enough amazing lessons the Bible teaches.  We can only dedicate a significant amount of time each day to reading the Bible and gleaning truth and understanding from its lessons.  We should follow the readings with prayers; that we gain understanding and further our relationship with Jesus through the Word of God.  

This basis of this area in my plan will be an exact replica of Brian Howard's guide.  

"Commit to a daily devotional time with the Lord.  You desperately need to talk to God in prayer every day and he desires this fellowship with you as well.  During this time you need to read at least one chapter in Psalms, one chapter in Proverbs, one chapter in the Book of John and one chapter in the Epistles, such as Corinthians, Philippians, 1 John, etc. per day.  That is four chapters in the Bible per day." 

This won't be the end of my daily Bible study, but the minimum.  There are always times where I will be sent to a specific chapter or verse through the Lord and my normal connections with friends and family.  The Lord always sends messages to us in this way and we need to be open to receiving the word of God.  I will not shut out those messages because it doesn't fit into my plan.  My plan will be flexible to stay open to the Lord's communications to me.  

Spiritual Growth through Worshipful Action

This is probably the most fun part of my new plan.  It not only involves daily dedication to right action, honesty and willing sacrifice, but it is the outward reflection of the Lord in my life.  It is things like writing this blog and sharing it with my loved ones.  It is probably the most personally gratifying because the response from others is so readily apparent.  It is about worshipping the Lord as I play music on the worship team in church.  It is about the Lord showing His grace, compassion and mercy through me.  It is absolutely His presence and work in my life that I can do these things.  It is not of my doing, but His.  I can only hope to impart on those that see me and my action and pray that their hearts will be moved by the Holy Spirit.  Of course, I will gain immeasurable spiritual growth from partaking in the Lord's command to work in His glory. Nothing is more rewarding than working, playing or behaving in a manner that glorifies the Lord. 

This part of my plan is the most ambiguous to me at this time.  I know that I have the ability to impart my love of the Lord on others and that I can spread the message of His glory and compassion, His forgiveness and mercy and the path to our salvation through Jesus Christ.  But I am not sure yet where this path leads.  I do not know what the Lord has in store for me and how my ministry will evolve.  I know that it is good and that His intentions for me are perfect.  He will reveal that to me in due time.  I am truly excited about it and I know His grace and through repentance and forgiveness will be manifested in me.  I will trust Him with all my heart.

The most important theme of my plan is obviously trust in the Lord.  I have set goals and means to achieve the goals, but it will always be subject to change, depending on what the Lord tells me.  My heart and mind will be open to all the Lord's commands, because I know His blessing are abundant.  He will continue to work his grace and mercy through my friends and family.  I hope that through His work in my life, I can be a reflection of His love and compassion to others.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. – Proverbs 3: 5-6

Shame on you Notre Dame

I am a huge Notre Dame fan. I did not attend the school, but I love Notre Dame Football. I have been a fan since I was 16 years old. In light of the recent tragic deaths of Lizzy Seeberg and Declan Sullivan, I would not allow either of my two children to attend Notre Dame unless significant changes were made.

 

With the tragic death of 19 year-old Lizzy Seeberg on September 10th, many have speculated that the University of Notre Dame "lawyered up" and put the football program ahead of what was morally right. Shortly thereafter, the university struggled to overcome the death of a student filmographer, Declan Sullivan who was killed in an October 27th accident in which the lift he was standing on while filming football practice toppled over in unsafe wind conditions. Are the two related and what conclusions can be drawn about the Notre Dame Football program?

In the case of Lizzy Seeberg, the victim was not a student of Notre Dame. She was a St. Mary’s College student who had accused a Notre Dame Football player of sexual abuse. Shortly after her police report, she was sent threatening text messages by a friend of the football player who stated, “Don’t mess with Notre Dame Football.” It appears that the stress from the situation caused her to take her own life, ten days after her report. In that time, none of the South Bend police or Notre Dame Administration had even begun to investigate the incident.

There are several very disturbing issues surrounding the Seeberg tragedy. First, the police did not investigate quickly, stating that their case load was heavy do to football season and increased underage drinking. They did not even interview the accused Notre Dame student until five days after Lizzy’s death. The university also did not publically issue statements or show any concern about the issue. It has been well documented that the Notre Dame student in question has a history of behavior issues. For example, his senior year in high school, after being recruited by Notre Dame, he was suspended from school for throwing a desk at a teacher after she took his cell phone away during class. Kids make mistakes, but certainly someone in the football program knew that if any behavior issues came up with this student, action would have to be taken swiftly.

Secondly, not once has the university reached out to the Seeberg family. In fact, the family was stonewalled by Notre Dame. The Seebergs were forced to hire an attorney to get any communication from the school administration and were told by the school’s general counsel, Marianne Coor, "I hope the Seebergs know how bad this could get for them'' if they ever went public. The Seebergs wrote a letter to Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins, who refused to read the letter, let alone meet with the Seebergs, on the advice of counsel. How horribly wrong and insensitive is that?

The Seeberg case was terribly mishandled by the university. They snubbed the Seeberg family’s requests and treated them as if the tragic death of their 19 year-old daughter was insignificant. It is clear the university was afraid of significant litigation brought against them for the behavior of the accused football player. If this situation was managed differently, with love and caring as directed by God’s word, the school may have been able to prevent the untimely and heartbreaking death of Lizzy Seeberg.

The Sullivan case is equally disturbing, on a similar managerial level. Wind gusts the day of Sullivan’s death were in excess of 50 mph. Sullivan himself tweeted twice:

3:22pm "Gusts of wind up to 60 mph. Well today will be fun at work. I guess I've lived long enough."

4:06pm "Holy (blank). Holy (blank). This is terrifying."

The last tweet was just minutes before the lift toppled and Sullivan was killed. It is tragic that this death most definitely could have been prevented. Many other universities have commented about the use of lifts for filming football practice. Policies address the use of lifts, which are to be abandoned if winds exceed 20-25 miles per hour. It seems obvious to many of us that whoever was in charge, whether it was Head Coach Brian Kelley or Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick, should have made the call to abandon the lifts well before practice. It is reasonable to assume that the university staff had a duty to analyze the situation and make that call. It is equally reasonable to assume that Sullivan, who was committed to his effort to be a part of the football program, did not act in his best interest by not seeking shelter from the high winds. However, that does not absolve the university from fault. Especially since practice the day before Sullivan’s death was held indoor due to high winds. Legal experts have predicted that compensatory and punitive penalties against the school could cost upwards of $30 million.

Notre Dame is not a small state public school. It is a private, well-funded and high profile Catholic university with a large student body and an active alumni. You would think that they would be sensitive to these issues. Faith alone should cause the administrators of the university to act with high moral values and compassion. It is clear in both of these cases that the school leadership has much work to do in this area and I consider their actions a complete moral failure. I pray that the university leadership takes these lessons to heart, prays and asks for forgiveness and makes the necessary changes in their attitudes to prevent similar tragedies in the future. If their course of action remains unchanged, they are going to have one less fan watching their football games and potentially two less students when my kids are of college age.

Compromise

Dictionary.com defines the word "compromise" as the following:

com·pro·mise (noun)
- a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.

Let's break this down:
com-
a prefix meaning “with,” “together,” “in association,” and (with intensive force) “completely,” occurring in loanwords from Latin (commit): used in the formation of compound words before b, p, m: combine; compare; commingle.

Promise (noun)
a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc

verb (used with object)
to engage or undertake by promise (usually used with an infinitive or a clause as object)

Compromise has been thrown around a lot recently, in words like concession, joined in, and bipartisanship, especially when it relates to Congress' weekend repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. Congressmen who were originally against the repeal have been labeled as "moral compromisers" in recent political and religious criticisms from this past weekend's vote. In their defense, these elected representatives have labeled the policy "bad" or "inconsistent with society's views" or even that there is a "generational transition" taking place on the issue, meaning our society's moral stance has moved away from the moral principles of the policy. Societal norms may have changed, but in this author's dissertation, you will not find any support for sacrificing moral values because of the ever-shifting whim of an atheistic society. Rationalization and elevating human thought to the equivalence of God’s word is extremely dangerous.

In essence, the word "compromise" means that one could make a promise to uphold a certain belief, or in this case, a policy, and then break that promise for the greater good. The greater good is subjective; current societal norms are appalling and hardly a worthy basis to effect or change policy. What is even more appalling is that legislators feel that because a segment of the constituency shifts a certain way and puts pressure on them, they must react. In some cases, this is true. However, when it comes to upholding a standard that is morally sound and built on a foundation of biblical principles, there can never be a compromise. The Word of God cannot be marginalized or interpreted by human thought to adhere to a societal norm.

Society has continued to slowly lower moral standards. This probably isn't a shock to any reader of this essay. The negative response, even ridicule against those who strive to uphold biblical standards is growing from various atheist groups, political groups and even some Christian organizations. The enemy is succeeding. He is engaging in a terrible onslaught against self discipline and personal responsibility. Insecurity and other difficult and distressing emotions can be dealt with if your faith and trust in Jesus is strong. As the Bible says, we must clothe ourselves in Christ Jesus. Without Jesus, those emotions will turn into harmful behavior, which begins with allowing your mind, wrought with sinful thoughts, to discount moral standards.

Romans 13:14
"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."

Ephesians 6:11
"Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil."

Many Christian churches have compromised in a number of ways to the detriment of our society's moral standards. Inevitably, church leaders and current Christian reformers, especially emergent churches, have developed conflicting opinions about traditional Christian morality. There is no excuse to compromise the Word of God. It is vital that churches continue to spread the Word of God to all mankind, however, by definition; emerging churches have altered their view of evangelical Christian morality and are engaging in heresy and false doctrine.

Emerging church leaders are very intelligent and are well-educated in both secular studies and Christian theology. They have a keen appreciation for societal evolution, especially in the recent past. They support their arguments with scriptural references and persuasive, thoughtful, well-written commentary. I refer to Scot McKnight's article called the "Five Streams of the Emerging Church" published in Christianity Today on January 19, 2007. This article is an excellent example of the dangers of compromise, new age thought and acceptance of societal norms. Professor McKnight is an intelligent and a skilled writer. He has written many articles and books on theology as well as critical reviews of emergent books and authors. However, he fails miserably to uphold the primary tenants of God’s Word, like many others in the emergent church movement. He downplays discernment in favor of conversation, discussion and intelligent human thought on the role of traditional Christian morality in today's society. God warns us on numerous occasions in the Bible about human believing that our own sinful thought is as important as the Word of God. God gave us the ability to discern. Judgment, in any situation, should not be subject to societal opinion, especially when it is in direct opposition of God’s Word.

Like many emergent themes, the emphasis is not the Word of God, but on a style of living where one tries to live in the "footsteps of Jesus." Right action or “good” behavior becomes the most important part of being a Christian. Credit is often not given to God or the Bible for the basis of this “right action.” One can easily be confused with the way McKnight explains the word praxis; "following Jesus," "acting like a Christian should act" or "how faith is lived out" and replacing it, or at minimum, elevating actions to an equivalent moral level with accepting Jesus Christ as one's Savior. If you read the entire McKnight article, not once does he refer to Christ as our Lord and Savior or the Son of God. Emergent leaders are consistent in their treatment of this issue, which fundamentally flawed and is deteriorating our moral belief system.

The other primary compromise in the emergent church movement is recognizing the moral shifts in society, i.e. the “postmodern” ideals of our society and accepting them as harmless. Instead of rejecting these whimsical trends, holding fast to the Word of God and preaching a higher moral standard, the emergent leaders intellectually deconstruct traditional evangelical Christian values in favor of acknowledging and even condoning immoral behavior. They theorize that society can dictate right behavior, with almost no reference to the moral foundation we, as Christians, should adhere to.

The reaction by our Congressmen to the repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy is along these same theoretical lines. The postmodern Christian reaction will be of acceptance and support, because they believe, based on false doctrine and skewed data that the Christian moral standard regarding homosexuality is irrelevant. This action further contributes to the gradual acceptance of homosexual behavior as normal and not sinful. The political argument assumes that homosexuality has no measurable negative effect on society (or our military, in this example) and there are no negative health risks to homosexual behavior. Clearly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have other data.

· One in five homosexual males are infected with HIV
· Homosexual males have HIV prevalence 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first-time blood donors and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors.
· Infection with the Hepatitis B virus is about 5-6 times more common, and Hepatitis C virus infections are about 2 times more common in homosexual males than in the general population.
· Although homosexual males comprise only 1-to-2 percent of the population, they account for an epidemic 64 percent of all syphilis cases.

The next step for the political softies that compromised on this issue is to discount the population of gays in the military. “It’s only 1 or 2 percent, so it is really not an issue.” One can rationalize all day long, but it does not morally support the action. In this author’s opinion, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was put into place to protect homosexuals serving in the military from deliberate abusive action by their fellow soldiers. There have been many recognized and well documented cases of violent behavior against homosexuals in society and in the military including near-death beatings and other horribly violent acts no human being should be subjected to, no matter their sexual preference.

The final analysis will prove that human thought and human nature is never superior to the Word of God. Peter warns us in his second epistle:

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (2 Peter 2: 1-3)

Also, Paul has perhaps the most profound instruction on this topic in his first letter to Timothy:

As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.

But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1: 2-17)


These scriptures completely dissolve the emergent church belief that we can never really know the actual truth because we haven’t physically experienced it for ourselves. It also devastates another emergent tenant that the truth of the Word is beyond our comprehension, so it is our job, as humans, to interpret it the best we can. Paul emphasized that knowing the law and understanding our moral foundation given to us by God is by faith. Emergent leaders again discount what is clearly written in the Word and routinely speculate that what is written in the Bible is either not applicable to today’s society, it is outdated and stale or it is incomprehensible, so why even try?

Discernment is of utmost importance. God gave us the tools to be discerning. We cannot allow modern societal norms to influence truth. It is obvious emergent churches are allowing commonly accepted societal norms into their beliefs; even promoting them to some degree, in order to reach out to all kinds of people. Their messages should be about promoting the body of Christ through each individual’s personal relationship with Jesus. Perhaps the origin of this movement can be attributed to new age movement of the 1980’s. There was a realization by emergent leaders that there was a growing market for new and different “new age” messages in today’s society and they have taken advantage of it. Through their publications and church-planting activities, the financial rewards are significant.

Emergent churches have accepted homosexuality and other very damaging behaviors like abortion and pre-marital sex. In questioning biblical truth, they have even incomprehensibly questioned Jesus’ sacrifice as our gift of salvation! It is absolutely unfathomable that they promote such blatant heresy and call themselves Christians in absolute opposition to the truth. They should be promoting the highest of high standards given to us in the Word of God, demanding accountability and coaching the body to strive with all their hearts and minds to achieve that standard, instead of attempting to marginalize the truth and bring it down to a societal level.

There is significantly more damage done to the body of Christ by reducing the truth to make people feel good. Our willing media, which is filled with atheism, routinely tears Christianity down and twists Biblical truth into racism, sexism, bigotry, elitism and rejects the equality of traditional roles. Biblical truth and the standard by which it is a guide for our lives is amazingly liberating, for both sexes, and provides for both a tangible human reward and the ultimate reward in Heaven.

Traditional, straight forward Biblical truth is easy to understand, but difficult to live up to. It has never been easy to be a Christian. It requires admission and repentance of sin, forgiveness, dedication to the Word and personal responsibility and acceptance of God's moral standard. Daunting is an understatement, but faith is infinitely and ultimately renumerated in Heaven.

The laws of the United States should also be held to the highest of moral standards. Compromise should be out of the question when it comes to holding the behavior of our society to the standard given to us by God with His perfect intentions. God would not have given us such a thorough framework if he felt that it was necessary or even a human's place to interpret the Word in a way our limited brain can comprehend. Giving in, compromising and generally allowing our sinful thought to pervert the teachings of the Son of God is heresy. Jesus is the foundation of all things. Believe in Jesus, take the Word of God as the ultimate authority, reject anything that compromises your moral foundation and recognize that it is false doctrine. God gave us the ability to discern so that we may protect ourselves from the evils of compromise.

Economy, stupid...

The following is an email exhange I had with a gentleman I serve on a public (county) advisory board about the economy and banks, lending and the finance industry.

Him:
"For what it's worth, my personal predictions for the next four quarters are as follows: I anticipate the second and third quarters of 2009 will see an improvement from what we've seen the past six months. Much of this improvement will be seasonal. The last quarter of 2009 will see a seasonally adjusted improvement. In other words, I anticipate a more positive outlook for the building industry and a more robust economy in general, but we will be entering the seasonally slower period for actual job starts. I anticipate the first quarter of 2010 will see an even more improved economic outlook with the bottom of the recession behind us. The catalyst for any improvement, in my opinion, will be a friendlier lending environment for businesses and home buyers."

Me:
Most likely, the lending environment will not get any friendlier for the foreseeable future. The lending environment we have experienced since the early part of this decade is one of the most significant contributing factors to this economic downturn. Good businesses with capable management and adequate financial stability will always have plenty of good lending institutions across the country to seek financing. Weakening credit standards is not the answer to an economic turnaround. Neither is rampant government spending and increased taxation. Loosening credit standards is especially not the answer in residential or other consumer types of lending. Consumer lending has run far too long without an appropriate level of safeguards and a high level of availability to both the creditworthy and un-creditworthy in all facets of the market; credit cards and other unsecured lending, auto loans and residential financing. Coupled with overbuilding or oversupply creating negative trends in real estate values, high instances of rapidly increasing property taxes and declines in rents, the residential real estate market has a long road of recovery ahead. Our economic foundation over the past decade has been built on debt rather than cash. In fact, a significant portion of our economic growth in commercial and residential real estate was based on retail consumer spending of borrowed funds rather than household earnings. I do not see a significant improvement in our economy until the balance of our economic foundation returns to sound fundamental consumer spending of earned dollars, not borrowed funds. The same holds true for our myriad of governmental arms and agencies and their spending habits, especially our federal government, in my opinion.

Him:
"With all due respect to your banking background, and in light of the fact that banking is not my profession, I would like to respectfully disagree with a portion of your response. No doubt the lending habits of the past ten years were unwise, however, currently, it is very difficult to get financing on vacant property. Of all of the valuable commodities on earth, in my opinion, vacant land is a cornerstone more stable than the bulk of other investments.

"Many lending institutions are loaning money using collateral much less solid than real estate. I understand that, in light of the current situations, many banks find themselves in, they will be unable to do land loans anytime soon, however, I can't help but think that at some point, these institutions will decide to loan on raw real estate again."

Me:
The world would be a pretty boring place if we agreed on every subject all the time. It is very difficult to get financing on vacant property because lending practices in the past ten years were unwise.

Land is certainly a valuable asset. Lending money on unimproved land, however, is among the highest risk lending practices in the market, now or at any time in the past. The reason is because the vast majority of loan repayment dollars will come from the sale of the completed land and/or other sources of financing (like a home construction loan). The repayment rarely comes from internally generated cash flow by the borrower. Land values are instable and have relatively short periods of significant fluctuation. I do agree that in the long term, land values increase and at times are good investments, but not for a bank. It is not sound lending practices to lend money on an asset (unimproved bare land) that has no internally generated cash flow to repay the loan. It is much different to lend money secured by a property that has a house or apartment that generates income to the borrower.

Right now, in many markets across the country, there are huge surpluses of for sale improved land. The inventory is well beyond what the market can absorb in a year or possibly two years. From a bank’s perspective, there are no incentives to add more to the supply. A repayment scenario that is more than a year out on land acquisition and development loans has been proven many times over to increase default rates beyond acceptable levels. Many banks have the capacity to lend in this area, but due to the market conditions and the risk, most will not.

I hope that clears up your questions.

Corporate Credit Union Failures

http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/03/23/credit-union-members-dont-panic/

What a crock of crap. The failures of the two corporate credit unions, for a total of $57B, is HUGE. These failures would be similar to one of the Federal Reserve Banks failing. The CU system in the US was just hit with a 100 basis point fee increase to cover the losses, expected to be in excess of $6B. The NCUA had only $4.7B reserved for such losses. The NCUA assessment is likely to force many credit unions into mergers as well as many posting operating losses for the year. The article did not report that the US Central CU was given $1B late last year by the NCUA to cover their $1.5B mortgage backed securities loss. Part of that money is being made up in the 100 basis point assessment.

The days of cheap money from the credit unions is numbered, especially in consumer and business lending, the latter of the two the credit unions have no business being in. And people who write articles like this are idiots. They need to take off their rose colored glasses and realize that credit unions are part of our financial system and have made just as many mistakes as banks. I just hope that when this gets bad enough that the CUs start asking for public funds to help out, they fall under just as much media scrutiny as banks have in the past six months.