China Agitates To Undermine American Liberties
According to an Associated Press story titled, "Protestors Take CNN To Task Over Commentator's China Remarks", Jack Cafferty observed, "We continue to import their junk with lead paint...and poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out stuff we’re buying from Wal-Mart. I think they’re [the Chinese government] the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”
So instead of addressing the factuality of the allegations, a group of Chinese Americans took to the streets outside of CNN’s Hollywood office and called for the firing of Jack Cafferty. Of the group, one must question whether its loyalties were to be found with Red China or the United States.
One of the ringleaders is quoted as saying, “We understand free speech.” No, apparently they don’t as Cafferty stated a perfectly legitimate opinion in a non-obscene manner.
In such a situation, one ought to fight back against a claim one does not like by leveling a counterargument against it. However, in this case, the statement cannot be refuted so the only recourse is to appeal to the strong-arm tactics more like those used in Communist countries than those that ought to be considered in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The Chinese leaders are in Cafferty’s words, “basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years."
Are not the leaders of the People’s Republic of China still Communist? Do they still not engage in the same kinds of human rights violations inherent to that sociopolitical philosophy no matter how much they claim to liberalize the economy?
How else other than as goonish or thuggish does one describe a government that blocks its citizens from accessing the Internet unfettered, forbids its citizens the right to affiliate religiously with whomever they please without fear of reprisals, and interferes with the number of children couples are permitted to have?
Distracted by weightier matters such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, many Americans have problems relating to issues and events beyond those directly brought to their attention on the nightly news. Even if that is the case, they still don’t have to stretch their diminished attention spans too greatly to become familiar with the goonishness and thuggery of the Red Chinese.
For as the Olympic torch made its way through Western lands, citizens of the Free World were granted the privilege of experiencing first hand on a small scale the kinds tactics employed by these Eastern despots. Chinese paramilitary units “protecting” the torch laid hands on American and European protestors demonstrating against this regime’s civil rights abuses and even threatened those carrying this global symbol not exactly in a manner how its Marxist caretakers thought it ought to be. I ask you, do these operatives have the right or authority to lay a finger on a single person outside their nation's territorial jurisdiction?
Here we are being told to shut our own mouths out of respect for a foreign society while representatives of this very same society have no intentions of honoring our tradition of dignity and restraint while on our own soil. And don't think this will all blow over with Westerners, particularly Americans, going back to enjoying our God-given right to say what we want about whomever we want.
According to a Reuters story dated 4/28/08 titled "CNN Now Sued For $1.3 Billion --- $1 For Every Person In China", the global network has been slapped with a lawsuit in a New York court by a beautician and elementary school teacher (both of Chinese origins) on the grounds that Cafferty's remarks "insulted all Chinese people and intentionally caused mental harm". One wonders if those shot in the skull by Red Chinese organ harvesters will be allowed to seek recompense for the "mental harm" inflicted upon them by the government there.
Such legal action could result in silencing criticism of Red China not only in areas controlled by these diabolical Communists but even in nations where freedom of speech is suppose to prevail. CNN might be able to stand up to such judicial challenges, but what about the average citizen journalist or blogger?
Yet despite droning on and on about how glorious their homeland happens to be and how we as Westerners are not to pass judgment against the regime ruling over this particular nation and its territory, there is one glaring hypocrisy that has to be pointed out. And here it is: if China is such a swell place that isn't ruled by a bunch of goons and thugs, why are those so eager to rush to its defense living over here rather than contentedly over there?
By Frederick Meekins
Doctor Who Tackles Transgenic Menace
Though these characters still remain at the forefront of popular culture, in some instances their origins have been slightly reinterpreted to reflect the concerns of the new generation of authors putting their own creative spins on them and to capture the imaginations of a contemporary fan base. For example, in the Spider-Man films, the arachnid conveying its abilities to an unsuspecting Peter Parker is no longer just an average one accidentally bombarded with radiation but rather one deliberately tinkered with at the genetic level that somehow escapes lab captivity.
Though tastes in entertainment may differ on both sides of the Atlantic, it is pretty safe to say that Doctor Who is a venerable sci-fi icon among fans irrespective of their country of origin. Even though I myself am a relatively new fan as classic episodes use to air well past midnight on the local PBS affiliate when I was a youth, much of the appeal of the crumble-coated space-fairing time traveler has been because of the unique manner in which the show's creators project ethical concerns against unique cosmic backdrops and circumstances.
For example, one episode of season three of the revived series dealt with the frustration those of us dwelling in urban areas have to contend with in the form of what seems to be unending traffic congestion. In this story, commuters on what was a second earth set millennia in the future literally spent much of their lives in contraptions that looked like a cross between a flying minivan and a cramped apartment where it could literally take years to travel just a few miles.
Tucked away between that amusing tidbit and a complete singing of "The Old Rugged Cross" that was rendered with such seriousness that one could see tears in the eyes of the characters was another narrative detail that just jumped out at the viewer in tune with where science and philosophy might be headed if concerned people of common sense don't soon put a stop to it. Though the geriatric lesbian couple was shocking enough, their risqué union seemed outdated and quaint in comparison to that between two of the other commuters the Doctor came across.
For in one of the vehicles was a regular looking human woman who was married to an individual half human and half feline in his physiology. As unsettling as that was, viewers were in for an even bigger surprise when the husband beams with pride to the wife and asks her to let the Doctor see the babies. The doting mother returns with kittens that sound like they are meowing “momma”.
The scene alone served as a startling warning of the future we might have to confront if a growing number in the Transhumanist movement have their way. For those whose news diet consists primarily of what gutter Lindsay Lohan puked in the night before, Transhumanism is the movement hypothesizing that human beings must move beyond the limitations inherent to our physiology if we are to proceed to the next stage in our development as a species. Transgenics would be a subset of this movement believing this goal is best accomplished by incorporating characteristics of other organisms into the human genome by essentially engineering an amalgamation on the molecular level of two distinct species.
Proponents of this ontological melding will respond that the family in this episode of Doctor Who was depicted in such a positive light that Transhumanism could easily be seen as a benefit or as at least ethically neutral. However, despite dancing gingerly around the topic in one episode, producers were more blatant in their concerns in the next.
In the episode "Daleks In Manhattan", the Doctor and rebound companion Martha Jones travel back to the Big Apple of the Depression Era. Here they encounter a bit of a mystery intertwining missing transients from a Central Park Hooverville and the construction of the Empire State building. From that point forward, the story begins to parallel events and developments here in our own time more than most of us would be willing to admit.
The Cult of Skaro (think the Dalek version of the Free Masons or Illuminati in that it has been alluded to that this group exists above and beyond the normal authorities of this species in order to facilitate long term reflection regarding galactic domination) co-opts the construction of the Empire State building to use as a genetics research facility. As part of their experiments, the Daleks kidnap the nearby homeless and meld the dimwitted among the captives with porcine DNA to create a hybrid slave race similar in appearance to Jabba the Hutt’s Gomorrean guards in “Return Of The Jedi” or the things that ran Bespin’s carbonite freezing chamber in “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Eventually, the Doctor stumbles upon these pigmen. Interestingly, the pigmen are told by their Dalek overseers to take the Doctor and the captives of higher intelligence to the TRANSGENIC laboratory.
While one may come across science fiction stories where some lunatic tries to create some kind of abomination by fusing together disparate species, seldom has one heard the word “transgentic” bantered about that freely. Viewers then learn that the pigmen are not an end in themselves but rather tests to work the kinks out so that the Daleks might merge with human victims since it has been concluded that such a step is necessary to bring about the next stage in Dalek evolution. From the process emerges a cycloptic monstrosity that even the other Daleks turn against as the result was anathema even anathema to their worldview of destruction and conquest summarized by their Naziesque catchphrase of “EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE.”
All well and good for a Friday night's entertainment, but what does this have to do with real life, the unsuspecting might ask. Quite a bit, actually.
For starters, along the fringes, one hears accounts of individuals abducted by nonhuman entities (the origins of which is not relevant to this line of argumentation as one band of researchers sympathetic to this reality claims such beings are biological hailing from elsewhere in the universe while another claims these beings are actually non-corporeal or the offspring of the biological and non-corporeal) for the purposes of amalgamating distinct orders of life.
And even if one does not buy into speculation regarding intelligent life beyond our own, one has to bury one's head deep in the sand to avoid talk these days about proposals to join man and animal on a genetic level. Not long ago, one could easily dismiss such conjecturing as the hyperactive imagination of those who have spent too many hours watching the Sci-Fi Channel. Now though, one sees an increasing number of credentialed scientists with the financial backing of industry, academia, and government that can actually ruin innocent human lives openly discussing these kinds of experiments that will potentially result in hybrid entities such as mice with physiologically human brains and human beings with the wings of birds.
Use to be one would imagine the likes of Dr. Frankenstein prowling around in some dank laboratory or at some ultrasecret government facility. However, now such advocates of deliberate biological deviancy proudly herald their position and hold conferences at prestigious universities where they act like you are the sicko if you don't have a smile plastered across your face about the plans for a generation of intentionally disfigured children.
Now one doesn't even have to turn to obtuse scientific journals printed in exceedingly miniscule typeface read only by a handful of eggheads that have not seen a hairbrush in years. One only needs access to a mainstream newspaper.
According to the Washington Post in a June 24, 2007 piece titled "Making Manimals" by Slate.com correspondent William Saletan, at the moment most efforts at joining human and animal DNA are reasonably modest such as transplanting baboon hearts and pig valves into human subjects in order to keep them alive. However, it would not take too much effort beyond what is possible now to dramatically expand the scope of these endeavors.
Saletan writes, "To make humanized animals really creepy, you'd have to do several things. You increase the ratio of human to animal DNA. You'd transplant human cells that spread throughout the body. You'd do it early in embryonic development so the human cells would shape the animals architecture, not just blend in. You'd grow the embryo to maturity. And you'd start messing with the brain. We're doing all of these things."
Though the author will admit to the general public what is going on, instead of condemning the things such practices might lead to, he turns around and condemns those condemning this technology by casting suspicions on them as those Evangelicals the Washington Post likes to categorize as "poor, uneducated, and easy to command."
Saletan concludes his remarks by saying, "If you want permanent restrictions, your best bet is the senator who tried to impose them two years ago. He's the same presidential candidate now leading the charge against evolution; Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican. He thinks we're separate from other animals, 'unique in the created order'. Too bad this wasn't true in the past --- and it won't be true in the future."
If that is how the elites of the scientific establishment are coming to feel, that should give all of us hayseeds that happen to think there is something special about the human race cause for concern. For although Saletan and others like him try to make a laughing stock of those opposed to the hobo stew of species amalgamation by insinuating that, as with evolution, only buffoons oppose the process, they are approaching a truth that defenders of this technology may not want to touch. That truth is of course being that without evolution as an operational paradigm (as it is not an established fact at the macro level) transgencis would not be morally permissible.
For if human beings are not "unique in the created order" as the transgenic evolutionists who now hold sway in the halls of corporate, academic and government research now argue, then why should human beings be granted any special rights at all? And in some circles, we probably have even fewer rights as some of the shrill harpies in the animal rights movement who go into apoplexy over a smashed eagle’s egg are often the loudest banshees for the right to hack human babies to pieces.
Initially, these technologies and procedures will be marketed under the banner of medical progress and those opposed will be castigated for their lack of sympathy for the suffering just as those opposed to embryonic stem cell research were cast as being opposed to Superman ever walking again as in the case of Christopher Reeve. Saletan writes, "We're not doing these things because they are creepy. We're doing them because they are logical. The more you humanize animals, the better they serve their purposes as lab models of humanity. That's what's scary about species mixing. It's not some crazy Frankenstein project. It's the future of medicine."
However, it is not like this is where researchers will stop their work out of some reverence for the well being of human beings made in the image of God as this ideal has already been held up for condemnation and ridicule. As even someone as sympathetic to this research as Saletan writes, "When Stanford first head of the proposal for humanized mice brains, they were grossed out. But after thinking it over, they tentatively endorsed the idea and decided that it may not be had to endow mice with some aspects of human consciousness or some human cognitive abilities.” The British Academy and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences have likewise refused to permanently restrict the humanization of animals.
Thus, once the urge to use this technology for legitimate medical applications has reached its limit, there will be little there to prevent its use just a little more and then just a little more. After it is used to bring a handicapped or diseased person back to normal, what is to prevent it from being used to make a perfectly healthy person better beyond what a rational person steeped in Judeo-Christian morality would conclude were God’s initial intentions and specifications?
For example, successfully transferred neurons from an animal to help the paralyzed? All well and good, but if someone does not put a foot down somewhere, what is to prevent the Pentagon from calling up soldiers given the charge of an electric eel?
Ghouls in lab coats want to create such creatures no doubt so the can carry out Dr. Mengle-like experiments. Saletan writes, “Imagine that: a hominid brain network you can treat like a lab animal because it is a lab animal.” The same thing use to no doubt be said about Jews and Black folks in decades past with atrocious consequences.
It is claimed in a New York Times article by Nicholas Wade titled “Chimeras On The Horizon” that, given the 20-day gestation period of a mouse compared to the nearly nine months a human being is baking in the oven, it is doubtful human cognitive abilities would have time to develop. But how can anyone be absolutely certain? To this day, despite the number of books on the subject containing five inch words no average person could possibly pronounce, scientists and philosophers are still not sure of the exact link between the brain and mind, this conundrum so perplexing that it is called the mind/body problem.
In the Wade article, Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops provides probably the soundest advice: “If something were half human and half animal, what would our moral responsibilities be? It might be immoral to kill such a creature. It’s wrong to create creatures whose moral stature we are perplexed about.”
Many times, the unaware viewer sits back and thinks many of the things seen in science fiction could never become a reality. However, if things continue on their current pace, it won’t be long until such tales join the historical chronicle of what has already transpired rather than as a depiction of where things might be headed.
by Frederick Meekins
Intellectually Excavating Indiana Jones Unearths Epistemological Artifacts
Probably the most prominent representative of the discipline in public culture is none other than Indiana Jones, with Stargate's Dr. Daniel Jackson coming in at second. As a narrative itself created at a particular point in time, the Indiana Jones movies themselves can be placed under investigation to unearth what our own culture has believed at various points in recent history as well as the ideas shaping those having such influence over our own society.
Through comparing "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and the other films of the Indiana Jones saga, especially with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade", one can detect the shifts taking place all around us as to what the broader and popular culture perceives as foundational truth. For example, though the films should not be seen as a systematic theology upon which to base one's faith, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Last Crusade" had at their base Judeo-Christian assumption in that artifacts connected with this tradition, namely the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail (the cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper) were actual historic objects and, since these objects in legend exude a power that cannot be explained by conventional science, one assumes they are connected to the divine.
In the latest film of the series, "Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull", ultimate wisdom and power is not seen as originating in a traditional conception of God as in "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" or "Last Crusade" or even in spirits as in "Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom". Rather in the latest installment, the source of enlightenment happens to be those entities with the bulbous heads and lanky limbs we have come to know as extraterrestrials whose crystalline skulls in this story can serve as powerful tools through which to augur the future, communicate with these beings, and to gain control of the world. Though an entertaining story, it may have considerable basis in reality --- or at least in the worldviews of its high level producers.
For example, the opening scene with Indy trouncing through the military hanger is set in none other than Area 51 and the top secret project he alludes to working on 10 years prior to the events of the story is none other than the Roswell crash. Some might flippantly dismiss these as urban legends that have taken on lives of their own beyond the significance of any incidents that may have occurred in these locations that now fire the imagination. However, it is pretty hard to ignore the Nazca lines which were not discovered by modern man until the discovery of flight and the existence of a tribe of Indians that mutilated the shape of their skulls to make themselves appear as if they were from beyond this earth.
Even these can be dismissed as historical or anthropological curiosities as human beings have believed or done some rather bizarre things since nearly the dawn of time. The thing is that there are those among the influential who would imbue intelligences from beyond this earth with a metaphysical prominence above that which you would bestow upon someone from another country as being different from but frankly no better ontologically than you ultimately.
While a highly creative individual, to Steven Spielberg, these creatures are much more than imaginative characters or plot elements. Rather, the acclaimed director has had an interest and belief in the paranormal throughout much of his life beyond that of a mere narrative device and he has been reported to have had a number of encounters with the unexplained.
In the movie, the quest was not so much to verify whether or not transterrestrial life simply existed as a biological fact but rather that enlightenment was somehow obtained from these beings and as such they were worthy of the adoration and devotion once reserved for God Himself. As the public comes to embrace this worldview more and more, we are beginning to see a shift from viewing beings like this in a solely naturalistic context of beings from another planet not all that unlike our own to, as in the case of “The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull” as coming from a realm transcendent to our own from what could be referred to as another dimension.
Thus, in essence, in terms of our paradigms, the Western mind has come full circle to an extent but on a less sure footing than when it set out on the quest to comprehend the cosmos in which we find ourselves. It use to be believed that nonhuman intelligences originated from another realm (initially Heaven but tossed out when they followed Lucifer/Satan into rebellion). Then as the West increasingly fell under the spell of what Francis Schaeffer termed “modern modern science” (meaning science opposed to the existence of the spiritual realm) such entities were believed to come from other planets.
However, as the New Age movement has become so entrenched that it is no longer new anymore and prefers even fancier titles such as "cosmic spirituality", now it seems our alleged betters along the path of evolutionary consciousness take on the best and worse depending upon one’s perspective. For example, in the latest Indiana Jones adventure, no longer are the gods of the dawning order disembodied spirits we cannot see but rather posses physical form we can relate to even if it differs vastly from our own. And yet even though they are like us, the also come from a place apart from and above our own so as to avoid banality by providing us with the hope of somewhere possessing a transcendence we can still aspire to.
Those watching “Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull” can feel free to do so with a clear conscience as it is primarily an entertaining adventure story. However, as with the protagonist of this series, viewers should take with them the assorted equipment necessary to avoid the pitfalls and traps they are likely to encounter as they undertake an expedition into this realm where imagination intersects belief.
by Frederick Meekins
Pastor Sentenced To Chinese Labor Camp
Since freedom of religion is listed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it is a duty of the United States to stand for this liberty in any way proper or possible around the world.
Radical multiculturalists will respond that it is not the place of the United States to be spreading American notions around the world as this could be construed as imposing Western values on other societies. However, another axiom of the economic age in which we live posits that the customer is always right.
If the government of the People’s Republic of China wishes to continue to benefit from the financial patronage and cooperation of the United States, it is only reasonable for authorities over there to respect certain inalienable rights held by all individuals irrespective of what regime they happen to live under.
After all, firms here seeking to do business with the government in terms of being granted contracts are expected to honor any number of obligations that go beyond basic human rights such as minority quotas and prevailing union wages.
It is the prayer and hope of believers in Christ around the world that Pastor Zhongxin’s sentence would be commuted or suspended because in the contemporary world citizens embracing Christianity bring stability to a nation rather than disruption. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ assists both individuals and communities in balancing the seemingly conflicting tendencies towards order and liberty, and in so doing actually makes a nation stronger.
In the Western press, considerable debate has taken place as to the prudence of allowing China to host the 2008 Olympic games. With the eyes of the world turning to that particular nation at this time, there would be no better gesture that China could make to prove it takes its responsibility as a leading power of the 21st century seriously than by guaranteeing that citizens within that country’s borders are free to practice their religion without fear of incarceration or reprisals
by Frederick Meekins
Hispanosupremacists Infiltrate Evangelical Movement
While prominent Christian leaders are correct that all of mankind descends from one set of parents, interesting, isn’t it, how these speakers only expect Whites of a more Northern European extraction to abide by such radical color-blindness. For if a group of Caucasians a little to wrapped up in their pigmentation ratios established the Nordic Christian Association, it would not be tolerated in contemporary Evangelical circles, and rightfully so.
Yet, in browsing the NHCLC’s website, one finds alliances and linkages with a virtual who’s who of American religion today. On their main page at one time or another have been inks to prominent ministries such as Promise Keepers, Christianity Today, Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, and Rod Parsely’s Center for Moral Clarity. Unless otherwise stated, usually such prominent banner placements denote a high degree of fellowship between the partners.
As one probes deeper into the site, one discovers this outfit has conducted theological dialogue with arch apostates such as T.D. Jakes (denier of the Trinity) and Benny Hinn, known for endorsing epilepsy-esque convulsions in the name of the Holy Spirit. Ted Haggard, the former head of the National Association of Evangelicals caught in a scandal involving a gay male prostitute dealing drugs, at one time also came bowing and scrapping before the group in an effort to curry its favor.
But before most weak-willed pew fillers simply shrug their shoulders and flippantly remark, “Well it’s simply God’s will we don’t look at color” perhaps they should be told that it’s doubtful the concerns of the NHCLC are as broadminded and universal in nature as they seem to be giving their socioecclesiastical imprimatur to the Hispanic conquest of the United States.
For in a letter addressed to the President and Congress and in a “Statement of on Comprehensive Immigration Reform”, the NHCLC calls for aliens already living here to be granted permanent legal status, an increase in the numbers of visas granted, and a “viable guest worker program that will strengthen the economic vitality of both employer and employee”. So basically, to use Biblical vernacular, to Sheol with the American people so long as the elites and their new indentured servants are pleased. All you are to any of these people, both in the government and in the clerical class is either someone that pays taxes or tithes.
In their statement, the NHCLC calls for end to all illegal immigration. For those unable to decipher socialistic doublespeak, what this group is calling for is really not all that different than what Communist front groups such as La Raza has called for or the Tri-Lateralists at the highest levels of the State Department.where no one will be illegal anymore when the United States, Mexico, and Canada are merged into a broader hemispheric union where Mexican corruption will pervade, Canadian anti-hate speech tribunals will reign supreme, and America’s constitutional liberties will have been flushed down the sewer pipe like last nights half-digested refried beans.
One of the verses tolerancemongers love to rip out of its original context and toss around the most is “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” If one’s highest loyalty in this life is to be found with one’s tribe above all else as these ethnocentric ministries seem to insinuate, Hispanics have a lot of cleaning of their own house to do before they go about pointing out the faults of broader America.
Since the NHCLC has now set its sites on condemning the shortcomings of the broader American society, I guess they have finished evangelizing their own community and brought just about all of them to Christ. I guess they have convinced their kinsmen to forsake their carousing ways characterized by public boozing and raucous music and persuaded them to pick up after themselves and not to let their liter lie where it falls. However, from the appearance of many of our suburban neighborhoods, such is clearly not the case.
Another Biblical injunction the Hispanophiles love to invoke is “Oppress not the stranger”. But in comparison how Mexico treats immigrants to that nation, Americans pretty much treats those wantonly violating our borders like virtual kings.
In an April 4, 2006 piece appearing in the Washington Times, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy exposes the rank hypocrisy of highlighting America’s alleged “mistreatment&rdquo ; of those who don’t even have the right to be here in comparison to how poorly Mexico even treats immigrants there playing by the rules.
For example, according to Gaffney, the Mexican constitution forbids foreigners from expression political opinions on domestic affairs in public (no mass demonstrations as the human debris is allowed to wallow in here in America) and non-native born Mexicans can’t even become lawmakers or cabinet officers (thus no Henry Kissinger or Madeleine Albright). And though we are to fundamentally alter our Constitution in order to stroke Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ego so he can become President, a natural born Mexican citizen cannot become president unless his parents are also natural born Mexican citizens.
Yet in the spirit of multiculturalism and inclusion, we should not be so quick to dismiss all Mexican ways and in a spirit of international brotherhood, perhaps we should adopt some of the policies implemented by the Mexican government. According to Gaffney, Article 11 of the Mexican constitution guarantees protection against undesirable alien residents and Article 16 grants permission for citizens to detain illegals and hand them over to police who in turn authorized to expel them from the country without additional legal action.
And if the NHCLC feels it must speak out against the abuse of the innocent, perhaps they should address the civil rights violations that go in the organization‘s beloved cultural homeand. According to Larry Elder, Black Mexicans (Afro-Mexicans?) can be stopped by police and forced to sing the Mexican national anthem as a test of citizenship. But since they are not part of the “la raza” translated as “THE RACE“, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference probably doesn’t really care.
And those simply made to sing the Mexican Anthem are the lucky ones. Though Hispanics of the world claim to be unified against the United States, they hate one another almost as much as they hate the Yankee. For while the United States is expected to allow anyone in that pops through the door, Mexican officials regularly shoot, abuse, and sexual molest other Latin Americans coming into their nation for the purposes of, to borrow a phrase, “do jobs Mexicans themselves won’t do”.
This animosity among ethnic kinsman raises another interesting point. It is known that eventually most revolutions consume their own. Elitists in radical Hispanic organizations such as in the National Hispanic Leadership Conference, who could be accepted as Caucasians as many are as light complected as Italians or any other kind of White person with a suntan but just can’t pass up those affirmative action and racial preference spoils, should stop and wonder who the swarthier masses are going to turn against when the dreaded gringos no have finally been eliminated and no longer roam the earth?
American Christians concerned about their own futures since we will have to look after ourselves (since obviously no one else, not even our own church leaders intend to anymore) as well as the well being of their own children should think long and hard about who their religious dollars are going to support and under whose teaching they are going to sit. For the motto of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference is “Empowering the Hispanic Church, Engaging the Hispanic Vision and Enriching the Hispanic Dream.”
Where in that is any room for a common American dream, not to mention anyone that is not Hispanic? And if there isn’t, why should the average White Christian, heralded as the bane of earth by every malcontent from Guadalahara, to Los Angles, to Bejing to Baghdad participate in his own demise by either financing it through the collection plate or have to sit there every Sunday morning and be forced to smile about it?
by Frederick Meekins
And Will Obama Save Us From Our Sins?: Adoration Of Candidate Borders On The Fanatically Frightening
When Americans went into the voting booth, it use to be expected they would cast their franchise for the individual most capable of administering the reigns of the executive branch. Never was the individual to be chosen meant to give the teeming masses their purpose for existence. However, with the rise of Barack Obama as he seeks to win the 2008 Democratic nomination for the presidency, his campaign has taken on increasingly utopian tones.
For example, posted on the April 1, 2008 Guardian is a column titled “Obama Is The Change That America Has Tried To Hide”, arguing that only one candidate offers the radical departure from the normal that the 21st century US needs for its own sake as well as the rest of the world. In the piece, the reader finds accolades and platitudes as revolutionarily disturbing as anything from the time of the Bolshevik uprising and the Red Menace in terms of the new order this man’s disciples hope to impose upon society.
For example, the piece speaks of “a new country existing alongside the old”. Few commentators will possess the fortitude to translate this phrase honestly, but what that means is essentially that the holy Barack should have the presidency bestowed upon him for no other reason than that he happens to be half Black. The sentiment also implies that those daring to vote against him had better watch out when the riots start either after his victory or defeat.
Those thinking I am reading too much into this need only continue on in the Guardian column as the anti-White animus becomes even more apparent. This subversive writes, “I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader...in the world with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks. I cannot see the same scenario with Clinton, who would drag into the 21st century US leadership the same image of white privilege and distance from others’ lives that has so marred the country’s contacts with the rest of the world.”
In other words, “No Whites Need Apply” when it comes to elected office. Fair enough; maybe we can kick back now and someone can pay for our Foodstamps and welfare for a while and get an entire month dedicated to us where we are applauded for a change for no other reason than that we happen to be White.
Whites having grown docile in light of pandering to agitating minorities out of a fear of being classified as “racist” or whatever other labels are invoked these days to keep the handouts flowing will no doubt exhibit the hesitancy to stand up for themselves that has come to categorize most of this ethnic extraction for the last 25 years or so. Let’s hope this character flaw corrects itself before the followers of Obama set out to impose their socialist utopia where they plan to take what you, ladies and gentlemen, have worked for and distribute it to deadbeats of all colors that haven’t lifted a finger.
Think I am overexaggerating? One only need to continue analyzing this Guardian piece in question to see just how anti-American the Obamaites really are. Alice Walker writes, “I want a grown-up attitude towards Cuba, for instance, a country and people I love. I want an end to the war immediately, and I want the soldiers to be encouraged to destroy their weapons and drive themselves out of Iraq.”
Edmund Burke is credited with saying that, in order to love my country, my country must be lovely. One might be able to love the broad masses of the Cuban people as victims of Castro’s regime but to say that one loves Cuba as it is currently constituted means first and foremost that one is a Communist at heart.
Secondly, it is one thing to believe that prolonged involvement in Iraq may not be in the best strategic interests of the United States. However, one is advocating something far more subversive entirely when one calls for the abolition of the armed forces all together.
It may not just be the military the devotees of the sacred Barack might be out to abolish. Walker writes, “Even if Obama becomes president, our country is in such ruin it may be beyond his power to lead us into rehabilitation.” Such a sentiment is basically calling for the abolition of our constitutional system of government and its replacement with something more socialistic or Communistic in nature administered in the case by the Obama.
Pesky things like free speech and the right to worship as you see fit (especially if you do so in a traditional manner where you look to God as the source of your rights rather than the government) causing toomuch divisiveness? Why not just abolish them with an executive order as even supposedly solid conservative Republicans such as Ronald Reagan and G.W. Bush showed us there is really no reason why we should bother with the hassle of the lawmaking process when implementing measures no American in their right mind would back.
And you as an American had better not have any expectations of fighting back. The Second Amendment will have been done away with long before that with government stormtroopers sent house to house to confiscate firearms as transpired in Louisiana following Katrina to citizens that had committed no crimes.
Walker continues on in an even more frightening tone, “If he is elected, however, we must as citizens of the planet insist on helping him do the best job that can be done; more, we must insist that he demand this of us.”
For starters, the phrase “citizens of the planet” should tip the astute reader off right there that Barack’s followers are a bunch of borderline Communists. Such a phrase is an indication that the loyalty the person is invoking is not to the United States of America or even the God of the Bible but rather to the enemies of human liberty as those rallying under the banner of “the Planet” are not going to distinguish themselves from the Red Chinese, Russian Neo-Soviets, or radical Islamists.
Secondly, I don’t care who the President is, I don’t want him making any kinds of “demands” of me. Just how far will this “compulsory national service” extend? The Founding Fathers did not set up a system where the national government was to have extensive interference in the life of the average citizen.
These kinds of attitudes might be easy to dismiss if merely the ramblings of some fruitcake author having stumbled beyond the boundaries of their particular area of expertise. However, they are increasingly being echoed by more political insiders and even the candidate himself.
Pundit Chris Matthews has implied that anyone not voting for Barack Obama is no better than Archie Bunker. Former governor of Virginia Douglas Wilder has insinuated that if Obama is not the nominee that there may be riots in the streets.
In some of his comments, the Obama has attempted to convince the masses that he has distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright with whom he has had considerable admiration for for over twenty years. However, other oracles uttered by the chosen one reveal that his outlook may not differ all that appreciably from his spiritual mentor.
In comments regarding small town America (meaning largely rural White people), Obama has said, “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone for 25 years now and nothing has replaced them... And its not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
For starters, what’s so wrong with clinging to “guns” or “religion”?&n bsp; By holding onto these metaphysical foundations, one is of the mindset that one is primarily responsible for one’s own self and one’s own family (as symbolized by the protection afforded by the gun) and of those things one is unable to provide for one’s self one looks to God for (as symbolized by “religion”).
If anything, Obama’s urban supporters, not those living in America’s rural and small town heartland, are frankly the ones that have proven themselves unable of handling the responsibility of firearms ownership. Thus, it is reliance on God rather than firearms that the Barack might have the problem with.
For unlike the pious, self-reliant yeoman of the American countryside, many urban ghetto dwellers of otherwise sound body do not want to make the way of their own families in the world as enabled by God but rather approach with an outstretched hand in a less than grateful manner demanding that the taxpayers fill it. Seeking to bolster his image as some kind of secular messiah with God as some kind of grandfatherly figure in the background that simply nods but otherwise keeps His mouth shut for fear of being sent to a nursing home, this is the kind of dependency the Obama has a vested interest in fostering.
In Obama’s tirade is a clause that residents of small town Pennsylvania also cling to “...antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment...as a way to explain their frustrations.” Notice at no time does his holiness refute whether or not immigrants --- or at least the waves upon waves being allowed to wash over the fruited plain --- are changing what it means to be an American as many of them have no legal grounds to be here in the first place and they certainly aren’t of America’s predominant ethnic background (a characteristic somehow immoral to consider except when advocating why Obama is the candidate most qualified to be President), and that these new comers are being coddled by those in the egghead professions in the new refusal to become Americans in their identity. I suppose it is easier to preach tolerance and acceptance when, as in the case of Obama’s spiritual mentor and adviser Jeremiah Wright, when you are protected from it by living behind a gated wall surrounded by upper crust White people.
Frankly, Obama should be the last to complain about anyone being bitter as that has pretty much been the fuel propelling his campaign. His spiritual mentor who drives around in luxury cars and who is having a mansion built for himself in a posh White neighborhood talks as is he was the one dragged here in chains.
Those seeking to defend their lord’s infallibility will now point out how their master has since distanced himself from his pastor. That said though, does Barack have the manhood to put his wife in her place as well? As mouthy as she is, I somehow doubt that.
Obama’s wife Michelle has remarked along the campaign trail that this is the first time in her life that she can remember being proud to be an American. Need I remind you that this lady is no mere scrubwoman or housemaid and she has enjoyed the rather comfortable existence of an Ivy League education.
Granted, things throughout American history were not perfect, but doesn’t the fact that we Americans complain so much over the less than perfect serve as testament to just how good we have it and the freedom to gripe until our hearts are content show just how proud of things we really ought to be? Would be interesting to see how Mrs. Obama would fair with that attitude of hers living under a Third World regime.
In a prayer poking fun at the hypocritical nature of many Christians, the following petition is made: “Lord, protect me from Your followers.” Those who love this country might utter a similar invocation of “Lord, protect us from Obama and his followers “ as the movement that has popped up around this mere mortal seeks to imbue both him and the office he hopes to acquire with power over our lives no human institution was meant to hold.
by Frederick Meekins
Schaeffer Progeny Kneels At The Feet Of Afrosupremacist Pastor
Charged with relaying the truth of God as revealed through Holy Scripture and rationally applied to more contemporary specific situations through theology, ministers face the unique challenge of uplifting those aspects of culture and society that are in accord with what the Lord intended for mankind while admonishing or criticizing those aspects of human institutions and individual behavior that fall short. As fallen beings themselves stained by the same sin nature plaguing each and every one of us, it can be easy for those aspiring for recognition as mouthpieces of the divine to substitute their own agendas and predilections as God’s own clearly defined will. That is why it is imperative for believers making up these respective congregations --- whether they be sitting in a traditional pew, listening over the airwaves, or even reading a book --- to do their duty not only as Bereans but also as the sons of Issachar by examining the ideas espoused, the implications of these ideas upon the future, and the underlying worldview of the individual expositing them.
Sometimes, our closeness to an individual prevents us from seeing an individual as they truly are. Usually, this causes us to gloss over the faults of our loved ones to remember them in a light probably a bit better than they really were as love covers over a multitude of sins.
However, the very opposite can also take place if something causes a relationship to become strained and if we are not careful the minor faults we all struggle with can cause us to look back upon those we were once fond of in an almost criminal light. This may be the perceptual trap Frank Schaeffer, son of the late apologist Francis Schaeffer, has fallen into when he claims his own father was worse than Barack Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright according to a March 21, 2008 WorldNetDaily.com article titled “Francis Schaeffer’s Son: ‘Dad worse than Obama’s pastor’.”
When such a claim is made, those valuing discernment must examine the statements made by the disputed clergy in question and dig deeper into the underlying worldview of each. It is only by doing so that the concerned Christian can determine whether or not the rhetoric under examination falls outside the pale of acceptable orthodoxy.
Most of the Schaeffer lad’s allegations center around the charge that his father was at least as anti-American as Jeremiah Wright and that conservative Christians should be criticized for condemning one of these thinkers while embracing the other largely as one of the primary philosophical supports for the cultural engagement of the Evangelical Right. Central to this debate is what each of these theologians believed would bring the judgment of God upon the United States and why such retribution had been brought.
According to Schaeffer the Younger, inexcusable comments made by his father include the following: condemning abortion, reserving the right of the people to one day revolt as a last resort against a tyrannical government that abridges God-given rights that would otherwise allow the politically active to work for change within the system and that the right to bear arms as expressed by the Second Amendment serves as a mechanism whereby those in government ought to be made to think twice about infringing upon the rights of the people. The Schaeffer offspring also thinks it is unconscionable that his father dared to point out that philosophically very little separated the America secularist system of public education and the Soviet model.
Apparently in the eyes of Frank Schaeffer, the truth is not much of a defense. His problem may not so much be with his father as with the Founding Fathers as the elder Schaeffer was merely echoing in “A Christian Manifesto” many of the ideas forming the foundation of this great republic.
If it is wrong to view the Second Amendment as an “insurance policy” against unlawful intrusions of government power, does that mean that the younger Schaeffer would stand around with a smile on his face while operatives from the government take his property and rape his wife? It was this kind of unbiblical perversion of government that Franky Schaeffer’s father spent the last years of his life warning against.
O such horrible things --- the right to worship God freely, the right to be secure in one’s own person and property, and keeping the government within clearly specified boundaries so that it is strong enough to protect us from those that would do us harm while not making it so strong that it becomes a harmful parasite sucking our God given liberties away from us. Now let’s examine the kind of things believed by Franky Schaeffer’s new best friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
For starters, Wright holds to the theory that the United States developed the AIDS virus to maintain dominance over the Third World. Scientists and theoreticians could probably debate as to the origins of the pestilence, but doesn’t saying it was targeted at a specific set of foreign countries undermine the deaths of the many Americans the disease has claimed? Furthermore, isn’t AIDS a rather inefficient means of genocide since to avoid getting it all one has to do for the most part is to keep one’s pants on?
Most brainwashed today by government officials and leftwing propagandists into believing that firearms are evil by default rather than a neutral tool taking on the motives and characteristics of the individuals wielding them will have trouble swallowing the distinction between Schaeffer’s defense of the use of force over any that might be advocated by the likes of Jeremiah Wright. However, there is a world of difference when it comes down to just whom these two would be aiming at and why.
In his condemnation of certain aspects of government and society, Francis Schaeffer was calling upon a defense of the individual created in the image of God possessing rights no institution or other individual has the right to infringe upon. As such, under “Schafferianism” it does not matter what color you are.
The ideology espoused by Jeremiah Wright is much different. In his thinking and those like him, one’s value is not determined as a distinct individual made in the image of God but rather as part of a larger group or COMMUNITY. One can see this in his hostility towards America in general and Whites in particular largely through the company he has often kept.
If you examine Wright’s associations carefully, one sees he does not oppose violence per say but apparently only when it is America or Western powers that have resorted to force in pursuit of policy objectives as Wright certainly has no qualms about those advocating and using violence against Americans and our national interest. For example, it has been documented that Wright thinks highly of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
What is it exactly that Farrakhan and his sect believe? Quite a bit more than selling pecan pies and newspapers on metropolitan street corners.
For starters, Nation of Islam doctrine postulates that White people are an inferior race genetically engineered by an ancient mad scientist. The Nation of Islam also contends that a UFO-like vehicle is circling the earth to whisk away Black folks and to rain down nuclear annihilation on the White ones left behind for no other reason than that they happen to be White.
So why is it, ladies and gentleman, that liberal malcontents of various stripes will stand around and applaud this kind of foolishness when it is directed against Whites yet condemn it with such vehemence when such blather flows from the lips of the Ku Klux Klan to the point that it is those professing tolerance and understanding that actually perpetrate these days the acts of mayhem and destruction at Klan rallies rather than the Klan nitwits.
Wright’s association with Farrakhan does not stop at the level of a friendly “what’s up” as they pass each other on the Chicago streets. Wright actually accompanied Farrakhan to visit Muammar Qaddafi. For Americans that have forgotten since the Libyan leader has buried himself in the sand for awhile hoping most won’t notice him, before the advent of Al Qadea and Osama Bin Laden, Qaddafi spent many years atop terrorism’s superstar list.
This is not Wright’s only endorsement of Western civilization’s Islamist enemies. In his church bulletin, Wright ran an op-ed written by a high-level Hamas functionary.
Ladies and gentleman, what kind of pastor worthy of respect as such is going to hang out with and lend credence to the ideas of such human debris? Some modernist and postmodernists will whine, “Well, Jesus went to the publicans and sinners.”
That is correct. However, Wright was not ministering to those in the Arab street whom most leftists believe we are to pander these days in terms of our foreign policy. Rather, Wright is expressing a sympathy for those whose ultimate goal is nothing less short of the destruction of human liberty and freedom as understood in a traditional context.
Wright is able to get up there and condemn the use of force on the part of the U.S. government through its armed forces while lavishing accolades upon scumbag tyrants and terrorists because Wright is a proponent of liberation theology. Essentially what that is is revolutionary socialism or Communism dressed up in a religious garb.
According to Marxist doctrine, there is nothing wrong whatsoever with the use of force if it is used to appropriate property from those deemed unworthy of utilizing it according to the vanguard of the proletariat who whoever else occupies that distinction these days such as radicalized minorities, environmentalists, or home owner associations. In fact to some revolutionaries these days, such acts are not even categorized as acts of violence as evidenced by World Bank protestor-types who insist they are nonviolent despite the looting, vandalism, and destruction of property for which those in this movement have become synonymous.
Liberals, especially White ones, have flocked to the Obama banner in part to pat themselves on the back just to show how progressive they are by backing a Black candidate and in so doing they freely embrace all of the anti-American baggage that make up the foundation of Barack Obama’s worldview. When either marauding mobs or minions of the state come to take what’s Whitey’s in the years and decades to come, it will be interesting to see if the younger Schaeffer comes back around to his father’s way of thinking or if he has grown so accustomed to his role that cannot be described as anything other than a useful idiot.
by Frederick Meekins
Does Winfrey Ride The Beast?
At one point in her career, Oprah Winfrey was pretty much seen as a harmless crank as to the casual viewer catching the show in passing assumed that the program dealt primarily with her seesawiing weight and whether or not her shackup might secretly prefer to be paid in three dollar bills. However, as she has amassed considerable power and influence during her 20 plus years in the public limelight, this broadcaster is no longer an innocent afternoon distraction filling the time between when one arrives home from work and when dinner is set on the table but rather has intentionally set out to subvert American culture and the spiritual well being of the nation.
Not content with the worlds of television, publishing and politics now that she has taken an interest in Barack Obama only because he happens to be Black, Winfrey has now set out to establish her web presence as well. According to the March 3, 2008 edition of USA Today in an article titled “World Is Oprah’s Classroom”, Winfrey plans to lead an online interactive book discussion.
However, there is more to the book being studied than the typical feminist drivel one would expect women of the upper income bracket to be sitting around and reading. The title of the book alone is enough to send a chill down the spine.
The book is titled “A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle. It is through this text that Winfrey hopes to be the False Prophet to Obama’s Pseudo-Messiah.
According to USA Today, “Winfrey calls the book ‘a wake up call for the entire planet...It helps distance ourselves from our egos, which of course, we all have, and to open ourselves to a higher self, which he [the book’s author] calls consciousness’.” As with most New Age bunk, it all basically boils down to socialism, no doubt wreaking of the smell of dope and unwashed hippies.
For when the likes of Winfrey and her literary vassal Eckhart Tolle criticize ego, they are not really talking about curbing their own arrogance or astonishing appetites. Because if they really did want to downplay notoriety of the self, why did the author even put his name on the book and accept the proceeds from the royalties?
Though it is doubtful that Obama and Winfrey are the Psuedo-Messiah and False Prophet, from the philosophy promoted in her webcasts, one could very well make the argument that the Old Deluder and his minions pulling the world strings behind the scenes are no doubt using the duo as a test run for the future global delusion.
According to the USA Today article, Tolle’s philosophy includes “Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic influences’” yet he is not “offering a religion or set of beliefs, but appeals to peoples of different faiths or no faith at all.” However, Tolle (as well as Winfrey for that matter) fancies himself as a “spiritual teacher”.
If anyone falls for this, that what Eckhart and Winfrey are offering up is not inherently religious, I have a bridge to sell them or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. By claiming to be dogma free (itself a dogma), what Tolle hopes to accomplish is to unify as many as possible under a single banner of the flavor of the moment --- be that Obama and Winfrey for the time being or a duo far more ominous once the powers that be are through with them.
From this, one is very much reminded of the Great Harlot mentioned in the Book of Revelation that conditions the world into embracing the Devil’s chosen one but who is herself betrayed by the Beast once he solidifies his power.
Those interested by what Winfrey and Tolle have to offer can get a more in depth introduction through an exert of the text posted in the lifestyle section of MSN.com. The following analysis is from a portion titled “A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Part 1).”
The gist of the text is the wonder that will come about once more and more of us reach the threshold of enlightenment, defined by Tolle as “...a leap to an entirely different level of Being and, most importantly, a lessening of materiality.” Akin to punctuated equilibrium or the hopeful monster theory in biology where the evolutionists hope to cover their tails (both prehensile and otherwise) by claiming such advancements just occur spontaneously without leaving any proof behind, Tolle claims this state can come about as a result of ”discontinuity in its development”(thus only available initially to a select elite). In the plant world, this is a likened to the first flower.
However, in humanity the process is more existentially profound and contemplative as enlightenment occurs when one becomes aware of “...the underlying one Life, one Consciousness”. When enough people realize this, a “...profound shift in the planetary consciousness that is destined to take place in the human species” will occur.
It is through this monistic pantheism that New Agers or expanding perception types will be able to justify the deprivations they plan to inflict upon the remainder of humanity while continuing to enjoy their standard of living. Since Oprah is “every woman” as her theme song arrogantly intoned one season, she feels well within the bounds of propriety to tell the average person subsisting on ramen noodles several nights a week that their lifestyle is “too materialistic” whereas she vacations on David Copperfield’s private island resort for $24,000 per night.
Since Oprah is our avatar and embodiment of the collective consciousness, it is actually her metaphysical obligation to wallow in such luxury and up to us to provide a similar standard of recreation for her minions in government such as Senator Obama.
More importantly, by undermining individuality as in the case of Hinduistic New Age spirituality (atman is brahman) by claming that we are just a temporary cellular manifestation of the One Consciousness, when the time comes those accustomed to this mindset won’t have all that much of a problem with mass roundups and ultimately executions of those doing nothing more that questioning the worldview of those holding power. After all, one does not lament the removal of an infected hangnail or the cutting of hair since such an act benefits the overall body --- or as in the case of the global community --- the One Consciousness as Tolle calls it.
Such wayward intellects, according to Tolle, have failed to evolve to the point of enlightenment and “identify only with their own physical and psychological form”. Thus, for the sake of the COMMUNITY, it is imperative that such impediments be removed. Besides, doing such really wouldn’t be wrong (a concept itself outdated and bigoted since transcendent absolute standards don’t exist anyway) since distinct individuals don’t really exist and by hastening their return to the universal consciousness one may in fact be doing them a favor by expediting them onwards towards their next incarnation.
Progressives will no doubt ridicule conservatives speculating how close Obama, Winfrey, and their crowd might be to the revelation of the psuedo-messiah foretold in the pages of Scripture. However, it probably wasn’t a conservative artist that painted for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine a portrait of the Senator with the kind of reverence categorizing portraits of Christ nor was it a conservative that appointed Oprah as the herald of the so-called “new spirituality”.
by Frederick Meekins
Will Leftist Evangelicals Demand Believers Get On Obama Bandwagon?
Just because some white liberals are going out of their way to vote for Barack Obama for no other reason than that he happens to be half-black, some within the Evangelical leadership are once again beating on their drums about congregations being too split along racial and ethnic lines.
However, it they are the ones noticing this, isn’t that proof that those patting themselves on the back for their embrace of racial diversity are in fact the ones looking at the color of skin rather than the content of character?
So long as a church sticks to Bible basics and welcomes those showing up at the front door, what does it really matter if a particular congregation appeals more to a particular group of people?
Has anyone ever stopped to think that, provided so long as no one is blatantly mistreated or rights to affiliate and peaceably assemble not infringed upon, maybe God is pleased as after all it is believed He is the one that caused different racial and ethnic groups to come about to begin with as a protection against the human tendency to unify and lavish accolades upon pseudo-messiahs?
Before Evangelicals rally behind Obamaism as some kind of miracle cure to a contrived problem more in the minds of elites than actual practice, perhaps they should take a look at the kind of ecclesiology many of Obama’s supporters in theological ranks would impose upon Christendom.
Though someone cannot be held accountable for every inappropriate comment that might fly out of the mouth of their pastor, there comes a point where if the congregant does not disassociate himself from a particular church by either speaking out against incorrect doctrine or, even better yet, by taking their religious dollar elsewhere, it essentially means that one is tacitly endorsing the stance taken by a particular ministry.
If that is the case, then those taking seriously the notion that the Gospel message is for all of mankind really need to take a look at the sort of thing Mr. Obama has no problems allowing to slide by (like the Che flag hanging in one of his offices) for nearly 20 years and even more closely at the heretical poisons poised to infiltrate the nation’s houses of worship.
According to a transcript of the March 2, 2007 edition of Hannity and Colmes, the church where Obama attends does not promote universal values but is rather distinct in standing up for the “Black family” (not just families) and the Black value system (not universal values).
It should also be pointed out that this so-called “Black value system” heralded by religious liberals are not exactly the same characteristics the rest of us may be use to hearing from the pulpit week after week. The things making up the foundation of Obama’s worldview sound like they come more from the pages of the Communist Maniifesto than the verses of Holy Scripture.
For example, prior to having its seditious radicalism exposed in the broader media, the website of Trinity United Church of Christ provided a ten point program which included some of the following points.
“A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.” Ladies and gentleman, this is code for confiscatory socialism. I wonder if Obama’s friends in emergent church circles and the like are willing to surrender their bank accounts and property or like most of their other demands, that is something to be imposed upon we doofuses sitting in the pews.
“A congregation seeking RECONCILIATION.” That may sound nice, but in liberal circles that doesn’t mean everyone striving to be polite to one another despite past hurt feelings but rather that Whites are suppose to stand up and ring their hands for being “White devils” as Lousi Farrakhan, a good friend of the pastor of this church by the way, calls Caucasians and to dig into our pockets to fork out reparations payments.
“A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA” because as the preamble to this document reads before it mysteriously disappeared, “Africa is ‘our native land‘.”. Well, if you are going to harp on the need for multi-ethnic congregations, why should Caucasians care about Africa as it is not our native land. If you were born here, that distinction belongs to the United States.
Frankly, why would any white person want to subject themselves to such nonsense? Furthermore, if a church propounded the so-called “White family” and so-called “White values”, wouldn’t it be lambasted as crypto-Nazi and the presidential hopes of anyone holding membership in such a den of doctrinal iniquity rightfully dashed?
by Frederick Meekins
During the 1980’s, Phil Donahue use to get on his show and wring his hands about how guilty he felt for being an American while much of the world languished in poverty and despair. While Donahue was noted for being an avowed secularist, similar tactics are often invoked in churches across the United States in order to manipulate good natured parishioners into forking over their incomes in what amounts to a shameless redistribution of income that would make many IRS agents blush.
The pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland spoke on the July 8, 2007 broadcast of the congregation’s Sunday morning service about his missions trip to the Ivory Coast in Africa. And now possessed of the irritating fervor characterizing those just having given up what they now consider to be vices such as cigarettes, booze, or even fattening foods, the pastor of this particular congregation is now bent on condemning the American way of life in light of that endured by the Africans he met while on his expedition to the Dark Continent.
It is one thing to compare how much we as Americans have to be grateful for in comparison to those living in abject squalor. However, the homily goes too far and reveals less than altruistic motives when it goes beyond the purpose of making such observations into condemning Americans for things that are not sins in themselves and for matters over which those hearing the message bear little direct personal responsibility.
From the pastor’s remarks, one comes away with the impression that, if one owns more than one pair of shoes or happens to subscribe to Direct TV, one is somehow the culprit behind Third World disease or malnutrition. According to the pastor, Americans enjoying such niceties need to be rebuked, in large part, for failing to submit to what would amount to a massive income redistribution where we would be the ones ending up with a diminished standard of living and its doubtful the Africans would be much better off either since such programs, though more efficient than when the government steals from you under threat of violence or incarceration through the tax code, still have considerable overhead.
Some will respond, well it’s good to speak out against excess. Maybe so if one is railing against the golden thrones such as the name it claim crowd sit upon on the TBN soundstage.
But what is being condemned from this particular pulpit in question is not any kind of blatant debauchery. Coming dangerously close to the Al Gore and Evangelicals Against Climate Change perspective, this pastor --- a Bob Jones graduate --- shows the extent to which collectivism has infiltrated what was once considered the impenetrable bulwark of Christian Fundamentalism when he derides those claiming they need three automobiles in case something happens to the other vehicles.
While that may sound like a ostentatious number, when you think about it, it really isn’t especially if --- unlike many among professional religionists --- you keep your cars decades on end until they wear out. So technically, for a married couple, three cars is simply one spare if the husband drives one to work and the wife drives hers to wherever she goes during the day either to work or the kids to school or to the supermarket as part of her duties as a domestic engineer and child rearing specialist inside the home. Press some of the more strident Fundamentalists on the issue and they’d probably come out saying women shouldn’t be allowed to drive at all as an increasing number at the fringes of the homeschool movement will tell you young women should be discouraged from attending college.
Back to the issue at hand, if this pastor is going to sit in judgment on an issue no where delineated in the pages of Holy Writ and attempt to lay a guilt trip on the congregation as to how many cars they might own, is the pastor going to provide an ironclad guarantee of refunding tithe money should the one family car breakdown or that the church will provide a ride to work. Unlike the rest of us, the pastor only has to get to work on time one day a week.
In most centralized economic systems where priorities are not spontaneously ordered through the complex interplay of self-interest on a variety of levels but rather as the result of edicts handed down from on high, those at the top do not adhere to the standards they seek to impose upon the rest of us. As such, one must ask does this minister and the church he pastors adhere to the levels of asceticism he expects from those sitting under his preaching.
If a fuss is going to be made as to how many cars the average Christian owns, why doesn’t the pastor put it on the line and tell those in the listening audience just how many automobiles he owns. Normally, I’d say such information isn’t anyone’s business, but I am not the one making the issue a measure as to the sincerity of one’s Christian walk.
In his sermon, the Arlington Baptist pastor bemoans the wages of his missionary counterpart totaling to about $4.00 per day as if it is somehow wrong for the average American to have higher wages because of the destitute conditions prevailing in other parts of the world. However, like most other institutional mouthpieces lamenting such alleged excess, austerity is not something to be expected from himself or the bureaucracy that he oversees.
Such is not an accusation without foundation. For the pastor’s own comments betray a lifestyle above that of the average American Christian he is so eager to heap condemnation upon.
For example, in his exposition, the pastor mentions it costing $50 to go out and eat. Frankly, I’ve never had a meal that I know of costing $50. So before he goes about ready to accuse me of crimes against humanity, he should be sure to put his money where his mouth is.
And while the rest of us are suppose to feel ashamed that we have more than one set of clothes because the pastor’s missionary acquaintance had to borrow his own son’s sneakers, the pastor is himself pictured on the church website in at least two changes of apparel. Furthermore, since we are suppose to embrace a degree of austerity that make the Amish look like Hollywood moguls, aren’t photographs a frivolous luxury?
For while one appears to be a headshot taken around the church, there is a much larger professionally-taken one of the pastor’s entire family that just happens to scream “Look at me. Aren’t I a bigshot?” Is there any reason why visitors to the website need to see him all posed with the wife and kids; the assistant pastor’s family isn’t depicted in such a manner.
Furthermore, if as the pastor recommends, we are obligated to cancel our subscriptions to ESPN and satellite TV, shouldn’t the money going for his family’s photoshoot have gone to African missions instead? Or is this one preacher so vital to the cause of Christ that it is worth a few African children starving to death just so the world can see just how adorable his are?
Don’t be the one to shoot me (or spear me through if we are to hoist the African way of life as inherently more spiritual than the ways of the West) for pointing this out. For am I not only being a good little pew warmer and applying the pastor’s own words?
For that matter, what does a church need with such an ornate website and radio ministry anyway? In the pastor’s remarks, it is pointed out that most churches in Africa don’t even have their buildings so I doubt they have websites or radio broadcasts either.
When most pastors get back from their ecclesiastical safaris, one often gets the impression that their goal was not so much about elevating the plight of Africans but rather about having something to bash Americans over the head about. As with their environmentalist counterparts, to many in the Evangelical missions movement, while holding those living in these foreign lands in higher esteem than in previous centuries, one still gets the impression that Africans are still regarded more as adorable pets than as mental equals.
For if Africans are to be viewed on par with those of us living in the West, why does a monoglot English-speaking pastor think a largely French-speaking audience will want to sit around and listen to him? Wouldn’t it be a better use of resources to send clergy that already know how to speak the local language?
Upon their return to the United States, the image most short term missionaries paint of Third World populations is something akin to Rousseau’s noble savage existing in an almost sinless state unsullied by the evils characterizing the so-called civilized world. While such an outlook might assuage White guilt, it is largely an un-Biblical position.
For despite the vast differences between cultures enjoying 21st century standards of living and those still several centuries behind, human nature is quite similar within an established continuum the world over. Just as much evil lurks within the heart of the primitive as the rest of us. One African person I know of can quote scripture one minute and then the foulest dialogue the next.
When asked by one African (with an outstretched hand) why Americans did not send more missionary support, the pastor responded because of our greed. But why is this destitution the fault of the average American Christian?
Shouldn’t Africans bear some of the responsibility themselves and don’t their own forms of greed impact the situation they find themselves in? For example, in some parts of Africa, polygamy is still practiced.
Can’t one argue that is also a form of greed? So in stressing the need for African missions, why is their the need to snuggle up with anti-American liberalism with its incessant tendency to bash our way of life?
Wouldn’t you be more successful by appealing to the inherent tendency of most Americans to want to make the world a better place by exposing the backwardness and degraded practices of most foreign cultures and the need to emancipate the individual from such conditions? That is of course unless the purpose is not to set the individual free but rather to further bind all the people around the world with tighter chains of authority regarding issues over which God intended no priest, pastor, or potentate to exercise power.
In his exposition, the pastor of Arlington Baptist used as an illustration the plight of a pastor there with six children and his struggle to raise them due to a lack of support. For starters, if one is going to sire that many children, it is questionable whether they should be on the mission field in the first place.
Of course, to most possessed of this kind of zeal, normal domestic life is not glamorous enough. This attitude itself points to perhaps of Evangelicalism’s little talked about shortcomings, namely the greed of many missionaries who don’t seem to mind continuing to pester you with their own outstretched hands in the form of direct mail fundraising letters even if they no longer consider you a friend worthy of human contact beyond a standardized financial solicitation.
Secondly, if one finds oneself living in such dire poverty, isn’t it a bit selfish to go out and have that many kids? Some will stand their aghast with their jaws dropped saying why that means using birth control.
Not necessarily if what you mean by that term is assorted chemicals and what not. However, it might mean birth control if what you mean by birth control is a little self control if one finds oneself in a situation where you as a parent cannot secure a reasonable standard of living for one’s offspring.
In such circumstances, one should refrain from those activities where one could potentially bring new life into the world. No one is going to get shot if you don’t fire or unholster your weapon.
Those even more ostentatious about their piety will respond, “But such an attitude is not relying upon God to provide.” However, from II Thessalonians 3:10 we learn that in the context of the parent/child relationship God provides by expecting us to provide for our own.
From the tone often taken in the sermons emanating from the pulpit of Arlington Baptist Church, one gets the impression that it might not be as much about serving God as about surrendering to the hierarchy of the church institutional. For example, in this sermon as well as others at one time available on the Arlington Baptist website, the pastor condemns and chastises parents reluctant to hand their children over for fulltime missionary service, claiming that to exhibit any kind of hesitation or sadness is “standing in the way of God’s will”.
While God’s will should always be sought after, if the young adult in question has grown up in a Fundamentalist or conservative Evangelical milieu, one really has to stop and question is such a decision is really the call of God on their lives or merely a desire to live up to the expectations pounded into their heads morning, noon and night. Often in Christian day school and church Sunday school, one is presented with the message that any other career choice other than fulltime missionary work is giving God your second best.
If parents are to keep their mouths shut as to whether or not their children go to the mission field, how much more so the pastor should keep quiet as to this decision. At least the parents have a vested emotional and financial interest in the ultimate well being of their children whereas the pastor is just another credentialed professional who ought to have no more say in their lives in areas not definitively spelled out in the pages of divine revelation than a doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief.
Though one can say without equivocation that the pastor of this prominent church would never engage in acts of violence, one cannot help but almost detect seeds of an “unbalanced zealousness” (fanaticism perhaps being too strong and unfair of a word) removed only by a matter of degrees from that exhibited by the cultic adversaries of the Christian faith. For while this pastor would not bomb nor stone those he disagreed with, one unfortunately finds the shared tendency between these diametrically opposed religious viewpoints to disdain the liberty that would allow the individual to decide for themselves matters not clearly settled between the pages of divine revelation and any wholesome pleasure that might be enjoyed between the miseries that plague this life.
by Frederick Meekins