Back in the 80’s when I formally confirmed my Christian faith I had difficulty understanding why the practice of Christianity was restricted to the church and our personal lives. I wondered why it appeared to be a “given” that the practice of Christianity need not, and in many cases shall not, extend to our work place, business practice, or especially politics and government. And I had the advantage of belonging to a politically outspoken church at the time.
It is almost as if official church doctrine has declared that Christianity is a private, personal belief system that will “save us” while the other 90% of our lives is permitted or encouraged to do whatever society requires us to do to lead the life we desire.
Over the decades I have read about limitations on religious freedoms and related persecutions in various nations, especially those under Communist rule in China and Russia. During various periods the only way the citizens of such nations could practice their Christian faith was privately, in underground churches. They dared not let their religion be known at work or attempt to allow their faith to influence their government. It has recently dawned on me that we in this nation over the last several decades have gradually accepted a suppressed influence of Christianity to nearly the same level as exists in Communist regimes. We have retreated into a self-imposed Christian exile.
It has become manifestly clear after attending a number of local churches and listening to their sermons that Christianity is locked in the first century and confined to a personal faith. Churches dare not expose their influence in a public forum or government venue – we know our place. Don’t forget, here in the US we believe that separation of church and state is more important than the Gospel.
The Islamic ideology that I often rail against has a lesson for Christianity. Just as an evil person may have some good qualities, an evil religion may have good qualities as well. I have identified a couple of good qualities of Islam. One is the devoutness of many – their dedicated prayer life. The other is the extension of their Islamic beliefs and practice to every aspect of their lives: economic, social, government, military, as well as personal.
Christianity in our nation has over time been pushed off into private corners of our lives. Cultural diversity has become the new “faith in America.” The loser? Christian influence. Christian influence in government, the marketplace, the business world, has been substantially eliminated. And the churches and the pastors have apparently gone along with it because I have discovered that pastors who still teach a relevant Christianity in our lives and governance in our nation are exceedingly rare. I can’t find one within 10 miles of my community where there are dozens of churches.
Think for a moment which belief system or ideology is most likely to achieve ascendency: One that is confined to personal lives and which considers it inappropriate to influence our government and politics, or one which encourages and commands its adherents to influence every aspect of their lives, work, and government on behalf of their beliefs? Now consider the growing influence of Islam in our nation and the waning influence of Christianity. What do you think might account for these trends?
Amoralists and multi-culti’s of our nation have argued their way to achieving Christianity’s neutered status. And Christians have obliged. It is not as if Christian Scripture and historic teaching requires this status. To the contrary it does not. In fact it teaches the opposite. I am no theologian, so I’m not going to devote space here to point out the numerous historic Christian teachings on this point. The fact is that Christianity has been talked into becoming a private, passive belief system in the US. The fate of private, passive belief systems is persecution, extermination, and extinction. This is what Christianity can expect as it continues on its present course.
PS:
Obama and Lenin: We can’t blame Obama for the decline of Christianity and our slide toward Socialism and Marxism. In fact, he is a product of the teaching of Marx and Lenin whose ideas had a strong foothold via the progressivism that influenced him in the previous century.
An article in Pravda, an English language Russian tabloid, noted that the US is outdoing mother Russia in its rush toward Marxism. (No, not the cult following of Chico, Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo or Gummo.) The chilling irony is even Russians see the US has having surrendered its freedoms. The liberalization and privatization of Christianity over the previous decades paved the way for this debacle.
American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper
Pravda, April 27, 2009
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed, against the backdrop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me, dear reader, I meant people.
True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.
Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.
First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America .
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America 's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
These past two weeks have been the most breath-taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses, and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more than ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?
These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties, and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more than a whimper to their masters.Then came Barack Obama's command that GM ' s (General Motors) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self-given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.
So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies.. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less than two months ago, warned Obama and UK ' s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.
Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "free man" whimper.
So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance, and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Frank, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.
The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world how free he really is. The world will only snicker.
Snopes link -
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/pravda.asp
Here is the original blog that was reproduced in Pravda. The comments to that blog are of interest.
It appears that Christianity in America has already endorsed this detour. How come Russians “get it” but our churches don’t?
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