Decline of Christian discernment: Western and Eastern perspectives

There is no doubt that much of Christianity in the West has become uber-tolerant to the point that it has blended itself invisibly into the decadent cultural morass.  It is difficult to distinguish main stream Christian moral standards from those of the rest of the non-Christian culture.  Tolerance, a blind eye, and everyone has a right to do whatever they want is liberty run amuck as condoned by the Christian mainstream.  There is not much difference between the moral attitudes of mainstream Christians and bold-faced progressives I have recently encountered.

One casualty I have noted in this pathetic progressive Christian phenomenon is the attitude of most churches to the real threat of Islam.  They are oblivious.  In most cases, Islam is not on the sermon or Sunday School radar at all.  But in many liberal denominations, when Islam is discussed, it is of the Karen Armstrong variety**:  defense of Islam as an unworthily persecuted religion of peace that is misunderstood by Islamophobic bigots.  Armstrong’s version of Islam is what is promoted by the mainstream media, universities, and increasingly by the federal government, and especially the Department of Justice, State Department, and sadly, the military.  And yes, by most churches, going so far as their Kum Bey Yah-esque ecumenicalism that declares Allah, the god of Islam, as one and the same as God, the Yehweh of Jews and Christians.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  The natures of Allah and God are as different as night and day.  Anyone who seriously studies this topic need only do 10 minutes of research to figure this out.  This is how far the undiscerning western churches have undermined Biblical truth.

What about Christianity in the Mid-Eastern and Eastern Churches?  Do they have the same lapse of moral judgment?  Have they become as stone cold ignorant of the faith as we westerners?  After a recent discussion on this topic with a Catholic priest from Latvia, the answer is NO.  Compared to the churches in Western Europe, the US and Canada, churches further to the east are persevering in their orthodox doctrine and are remaining much more true to their faith.  Why is this the case?

Here is the simplistic answer:  Persecution and hardship.  Their lives have multiple times the challenges of ours in the West.  God is more real and present in their lives because that is all they have to give them hope.  Here in the West we are preoccupied and self-absorbed in all sorts of sports, entertainment and technological goodies.  Our standard of living provides numerous God-substitutes.  We can afford to water down not only the Gospel, but virtually all the moral standards that go hand and hand with the Gospel.  Mid-Eastern and Eastern Christians don’t have that luxury.  And spiritually it makes them much better off.  Plus, as regards Islam, they have Islamic doctrine staring them square in the face in the form of daily persecutions and intimidation – all based on the Islamic doctrine that most Westerners presently deny.

We in the West have much to look forward to, given our lack of discernment.  And it ain’t pretty.

____________________________

**Karen Armstrong’s writings were my first exposure to Islam during my Kum Bey Yah phase of understanding right after 9-11.  Her books were all that was available in the bookstores during that period.  Since then I have spent serious time learning about such Islamic doctrines as Abrogation, Taqiyya, and Sharia.  And I have applied some common sense in tracking and interpreting the actions of Muslims informed by prevailing orthodox teachers of Islam today to come through Armstrong’s disingenuous fog to understand the reality of Islam and the challenges it presents to our Judeo-Christian western culture.

Best explanation of European economy…

 

This is a two-and-a-half minute synopsis of everything you need to know about the European economy.  And, by the way.  Don’t expect the euphoria from the Eurozone agreements today to last very long.  Reality still exists.

European economy version of “Who’s on first.”

Supreme Court decision motivates Americans to act!

There is a ton of fallout from the unexpected Supreme Court decision on Obamacare.  And rightfully so.  Here are some of the things that Americans have a right and duty to be outraged about and some things we can do about it:

• The politicians that adopted Obamacare said it does NOT impose a tax.  The Supreme court ruled it DOES impose a tax.  Actually, many taxes.
• The politicians that adopted Obmacare said we can keep the health insurance we like.  NO!  We cannot.
• The politicians who promoted and voted for Obamacare are either lying pieces of crap or ignorant pieces of crap.  Either way, they need to be eliminated.
• The Supreme Court upheld a case of FRAUD perpetrated on the American people by Congress and especially by the Obama Administration.
• Obamacare contains many new taxes and all of them impact the middle class to the tune of over $200 billion.  This may be the largest tax increase in American history. 
• The Supreme Court failed us.  They have become a social services and big government promoter, instead of their Constitutional role as arbiter of whether laws are consistent with the US Constitution.
• Supreme Court appointees who were thought to be conservative (Roberts) turn out to be progressives.  He betrayed the philosophy of his appointment.  This is true of many Republicans as well. 
• Americans need to get a handle on the truth.  Right now, as my dad used to say, they don’t know their asshole from a hole in the ground.  Americans need to pay attention and learn how to distinguish a big government progressive from a small government conservative and elect conservative candidates who know and care about the difference.   The label “Republican” doesn’t mean squat.

HERE is what Rush Limbaugh had to say.

Glenn Beck has not been as angry in a long time.  Listen HERE.

This action by the President, by Congress, and now by the Supreme Court should motivate us to do at least two things:

• Contribute an EXTRA amount TODAY to Mitt Romney and your other favorite conservative challengers to national and state office (Romney can’t do what needs to be done without a conservative House AND Senate), and
• Confirm with your conservative friends that they are registered and motivated to vote in November.

Now, a day later, many conservatives have come out suggesting that Justice Roberts is a genius instead of a traitor.  They argue that Roberts purposely came down on the side of upholding Obamacare on the basis of it being a tax to demonstrate Obama and the liberals lied about it NOT being a tax.  Conservatives are calling this a purposeful “poison pill” for the Obama Administration as a result of Robert’s “genius.”

This is a valiant attempt by conservatives to create a silk purse out of a sows ear and is wishful thinking.  True, the result will motivate conservatives.  But I hope it would be beneath any Supreme Court member to use their position for such manipulative political purposes at the expense of their more legitimate and essential responsibility of upholding the Constitution.  Apparently my own hope is also – wishful thinking. 

This is a “no-win” deal for my respect for the Supreme Court in spite of attempts to portray Roberts as a “genius.”  If he is a genius, he is also a political manipulator which has no place in the Court. I hate politics even more.  It means there is one less formerly respected US institution that can  be trusted.  Yuck!

The arson version of “fast and furious”…

Islamic Arson in Colorado?

HERE is a video from ABC news originally broadcast in May 2012 reporting that Al Qaeda plans to start forest fires in the Western US via the use of “ember bombs.”  These terrorist  acts were proposed through the Islamic magazine “Inspire.”   The magazine urged,

“A well placed firebomb could terrorize large areas of the country.”

This “terror by wild fire” was  also reported by “Wildfire Today” website HERE.  The magazine “inspires” Muslims to carry out acts of terror in the US and elsewhere.

As this blog is being written, hundreds of square miles of Colorado are burning, destroying hundreds of homes and threatening cities.

American authorities said they could take out the Islamic “Inspire” magazine at any time but it is left up because it provides a valuable intelligence tool and allows authorities to track those who visit the site.   Did you catch that?  An Islamic publication that encourages people all over the world to commit very specific acts of terror against the US and others is allowed to continue operating?  That is like letting the leader of the arsnonist team in a crowded theatre continue yelling “fire” to his team of arsonists so we can see who will actually burn down the theatre. 

This is sickeningly similar to the “Fast and Furious” debacle where the US government released guns to track drug cartels without actually tracking where they went or how they were used until they were used against US citizens.  They are both “sting operations gone bad.”  Instead of gun-walking, it is flame-thrower-walking.

The results of both “Fast and Furious” and allowing a Muslim magazine to continue urging terror and destruction of vast areas of the American West is like lighting a back fire in the middle of a gas station.  The  results are uncontrolable and the consequences to innocent Americans is the same.  These actions expose Americans as helpless pawns in the Justice Departments ill conceived tracking game.

Hundreds of homeowners in Colorado may be the innocent victims of the ember bomb version of Fast and Furious.

If you are an Obama supporter you are in really crappy company

There is an old adage:  “We are known by the company we keep.”  This is just as true about the candidates we support.   Those who support Obama really need to be concerned about their reputation.

The company Obama keeps, and the element of America that supports him, leaves a lot to be desired:

Communists and Muslims in the US endorse Barack Obama: This announcement was made last year by the Communist Party USA.  If that isn’t bad enough, it is no secret that Obama is the popular favorite among most Muslims.  These are things voters need to be reminded about. 

"So what?" you ask.  In the 20th century Communist revolutions and governments were responsible for killing over 90 million souls.  Muslims are in the process of committing over 100 acts of terror atrocities per month in the name of Allah. 

Have you bothered to ask yourselves why Communists and Muslims would support this man?

This doesn’t even include those who suck off the government’s entitlement teats and the number of racists who voted for him and will still vote for him primarily because he is (partly) black.

All crappy company indeed!

Obama secures Muslim Brotherhood win in Egypt

Another item on Obama’s “destroy America first” and “love Islam more” agenda can be ticked off.

His brash promotion of the Islamic radicals during the “Arab Spring” has paid off:

Muslim Brotherhood Wins Egypt’s Presidential Election

We all understand that the leadership throughout the Muslim world has been authoritarian and brutal.  What we fail to realize is the the population is not endowed with the peace-loving, civilized Judeo-Christian culture and moral foundation, either.  Leaders in Islamic nations must deal with the morality of centuries of Islamic indoctrination where kids from the age of 4 are taught to hate and fight – where inbreeding is a doctrine of their Islamic ideology, where short tempers and violence are as commonplace as saying “howdy” in Texas.

Authoritarian and brutal leadership fit the bill given the violent predisposition of these various Arab Spring populations.  But Obama could not let sleeping dogs lie.  His love of Islam compelled him to join the fray in favor of yet more radical Islamists under the false flag of “democracy.”  As Islamic Prime Minister Erdogan aptly stated about his 97% Muslim Turkey:  “Democracy is like a bus – you get on it and you get off…”  Democracy, and most other western institutions, are tools of Islam to secure Islamic rule and domination, and ultimately impose their vaunted and utterly intolerant Islamic Law, aka “Sharia.” 

This transition is nearly complete in Egypt.  Democracy prevailed for a few months until the more militant and better organized Brotherhood prevailed over more secular minded Muslims and the Coptic Christian minority.  Egypt is roughly 80% Muslim with most of the balance Christian.  Unless the military intervenes resulting in prolonged violent and bloody Brotherhood-inspired street riots, we will see Sharia imposed in the coming months.  There will be either an increase in mass persecution or a mass exodus of the Copts.

This is a perfect example of how a minority of radicals (that Obama supported) can dominate a majority.  There is no doubt that the orthodox Islamic methods of lying, intimidation, and violence (various forms of Islamic Jihad that Romney claims is no part of Islam) helped promote the Brotherhood victory.  Sounds like the Chicago-styled politics Obama is so fond of.

So, in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, and likely in Syria , instead of  well-controlled, quasi-secular, fairly inert and mild-mannered Islamic states, we can expect rabidly Islamic, overtly Israel-hating, America-loathing Muslim leadership breaking treaties, creating massive instability in the region and serving as well-shielded training fields for additional hoards of Jihadi terrorists that, of course, have nothing to do with Islam.

Way to go Barack!

Obama the anti-America internationalist

Why on earth would a president of ANY country choose to open up the job market to illegal aliens while the nation is experiencing record unemployment in the worst economy in 70 years.

This is exactly what Barack Obama has done with his new amnesty decree.  There will be 800,000 formerly illegal aliens who will now become legally eligible to compete for scarce jobs with legitimate US citizens in our depressed jobs market.

Why?

The answer: Obama’s world view.  Being an internationalist at heart, with most of his ancestors still residing in a third world country, with his religious background being one at odds with our Judeo-Christian heritage, and with most of his associates having a great disdain for capitalism and a republican form government, is there any wonder?

Even if you are a bleeding heart who believes that people who live in the US illegally should be given the full rights of a US citizen without any strings attached, you have to admit two things:

1.  The midst of our worst recession and highest unemployment rate in decades is the wrong time to implement such policy, and

2.  The manner it was done, the unilateral Executive Branch edict circumventing Congress, makes a mockery of our three branch constitutional government.  I will not be surprised if numerous constitutional legal challenges ensue.

This is just another reason why only ignorant fools would again vote for Obama except perhaps for the position of Chief Imam of the Caliphate.  America and her citizens don’t matter to this internationalist usurper.

Facing eating, drug-crazed outbreak…

This one in Miami read the Bible and the Qur’an seeking Islam.  Oh holy day. 
He was thought to ‘only’ use marijuana.  His sister and girlfriend of course say he was a good boy.
And news of the Canadian cannibal HERE.




And another face-eater -  this one in Louisiana.  Here is his victim:



Police in both instances claim that these kinds of behaviors are not as rare as most may believe.  Blame is placed on “bath salts”, not on the corrupt behavior of individuals.  Nonetheless, bath salt are an emerging domestic threat according to the  U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center.


What would explain the vile sex acts, murders, mutilations and other behaviors that have gained prominence in the news recently?  Certainly unemployment doesn’t cause face eating.  This stuff is pure evil.


I tend to agree with Ann Barnhardt that dark spiritual forces are filling our moral vacuum.  The above depict a fraction of what is going and provide a clear indication of the direction our society is headed.


Ann elaborates at Barnhardt.biz:

I suspect many people out there are thinking this, but are too afraid to say it because they think that people will look down upon them as rednecks or stupid or unintelligent. Let me go out front as a person who doesn't give a crap what others think of me, and who is many things, but not stupid, and say it out loud to hopefully edify others to speak openly about it:

YES, THIS RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF NEAR-DAILY HIDEOUS, CANNIBALISTIC MURDERS AND UNFATHOMABLE SEX CRIMES IS A MANIFESTATION OF DEMONIC POSSESSION AND DEMONIC POWER RECLAIMING A FOOTHOLD IN FORMERLY CONSECRATED CHRISTIAN TERRITORY.

You're not imagining things. That's exactly what it is. People have been "bad tripping" on drugs for decades without turning into demonic animals and eating people's faces off of them alive. Just as satan is very, very real, so are demons. The demonic legions are reclaiming and reasserting power in the Americas and Europe because these physical landmasses have lost their consecration to Christ by their apostasy, blasphemy and child sacrifice. It is going to get worse. We are basically going to turn into what the musloid Middle East has been for 1400 years. Civilization is going to lose cohesion and people are going to start doing things that have absolutely no rational explanation: gratuitously gruesome murders and bodily desecration, and rape variants involving children, animals and corpses that normal people cannot comprehend.

The main gateways for demonic possession are drugs, pornography and homosexual/deviant sex. The cannibals have all been drug users. The Canadian cannibal was also a gay porn star. The British couple who raped their own infant children (on camera) are child and bestiality porn merchants. These incidents will increase in frequency exponentially as the collective apostasy of this culture has now reached the point that the "shedding of God's Grace" upon The Americas and Europe is now limited to individuals - and even then, God's grace for the remnant may be within the context of their persecution, imprisonment and martyrdom.

I guess the best advice I can give is when everything goes to hell and you feel despairing, remember that WE DESERVE THIS. What you are seeing is God's Justice, and an opportunity for you and others to draw closer to Him. And THANK HIM.

New web site: Christian Surrender of America

Check it out HERE.

I  at first named it “Christian Surrender IN America” but changed my mind to “…OF America.”  Christians are actually surrendering our influence in America, and by doing so, we are surrendering our nation.

The site, first launched in early June, will be under construction throughout June 2012.  Take a look at it and watch its progress.

I would appreciate hearing your comments.

Forgiving bad behavior: The right message for the wrong time…

I recently attended a local church Bible study on the parable of the prodigal son from Luke Chapter 15 verses 11 through 32 in the New Testament of the Bible.   Grace and forgiveness are the main themes of this parable .  The culture Jesus was confronting in the day was a highly legalistic, unforgiving, religious hierarchy who looked down upon the commoner and those who did not keep the Jewish law.  These were called “sinners".

Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees who were critical of His habit of hanging out with sinners He tended to attract.  The objective of the parable was to demonstrate to the intolerant, unforgiving Jews that it is worse to fail to forgive sin (the example of the older brother) than it is to sin (the example of the younger brother).  The father of the two sons was the “God” figure who freely forgave, no matter the cost.

I understand all of this.  And I understand that it was the perfect lesson that needed to be given to that group of people in that particular culture at that particular time in history.  Why?  Because their version of “morality” was excessively rigid, excessively enforced and lacked grace, understanding, and forgiveness.  That was the PREDOMINANT attitude among the Jewish leaders and culture to whom Jesus presented His parable.

Do we have this same predominant attitude among most church goers and the general population TODAY?  Pay careful attention to the words “predominant” and “most.”  The answer has to be NO.  Some of us, yes.  The great majority of us, no.  Maybe this was the case in churches 60 or 100 years ago.  But today?  You’ve got to be kidding.

What is the predominant attitude today?  I’d venture to say it is quite the opposite.  The highest value is “tolerance.”  Tolerance of just about every aberrant behavior known to humanity.  The best known and most practiced Bible verse is “judge not lest ye be judged.”  Judging anything is the worst thing anyone could be accused of doing in our present culture.  I have not observed a Pharisaical-acting church or person in the prior 60 years of my life.

Maybe I'm hanging out with a unique crowd, but the predominant attitude and behavior I observe today is excessive license and rebellion against any morality and most authority.  This attitude is pandemic in schools, the media and especially our entertainment. We have a perverse view that we are entitled to liberty without responsibility, order or morality.

It is dangerous to second-guess Jesus.  But if I were a betting man, I would bet that denigrating the elder son would not be on the top of His priority list for religious education in our culture in our time.

I could envision a more timely parable for today’s culture where the younger son left a dysfunctional family to become a devout conservative Lutheran pastor and returned to his old homestead after a few years to check things out.  Upon seeing his younger brother return,  the drunken older son began shouting “the Bible Thumping goodie two shoes has returned.”  The father then admonishes his older son saying, “Son, if you’re going to judge, judge righteously for good, not for evil…your brother was lost, now he’s found” or something along those line.

The point is that cultures go through various up and downs:  Excessive legalism and excessive licentiousness in various periods in history.  The same Bible lessons are not as applicable to some of these cultural periods as they are to others.  The church today is hardly guilty of excessive judging or legalism.  Certainly nothing like the crowd Jesus was admonishing with his parable.  If anything we need a return to a bit of fire and brimstone of a century or more ago.  There are plenty of those examples in the Bible, too, but these might offend someone, I suppose.  But such verses would certainly address the real needs of our culture today better than those that urge us to be even more tolerant of the amorality and licentiousness rampant in today’s culture.

When we are already blindly pandering to bad behavior in our culture, a lesson on why we should do more of it is hardly fitting.

Personal responsibility, the welfare state and economic collapse: What do these have to do with social liberalism?

The frequency of doom and gloom economic headlines is on the rise once again.  And again Europe is at the center, especially Spain and Greece, with Italy not far behind.  These “near the brink” nations have the 4th (Italy), 5th (Spain), and 12th (Greece) largest economies in the Eurozone based on 2011 GDP.  And their economies are on the precipice of collapse.

In our own presidential campaign among fiscal conservatives there is resistance, almost an antipathy-laden shout to social conservatives to “get out of the way” as if social conservatism has absolutely NOTHING to do with fiscal conservatism.

Well, I beg to differ.  Here is some evidence.

Citi Credit Strategy just released a dismal update to a report they issued two weeks ago (Courtesy of Zero Hedge):

We could be close to the breaking point. Already in the last week there are clear signs in credit that the selloff is becoming more systemic. If you have come across our 'five phases of grief' framework – it appears we are moving straight from 'depression' back to 'anger'. [ In other words, instead of facing reality, emotions have cycled backwards. gm]

Until the gravity of the situation is made clear, until the self-reinforcing mechanisms that already seem to be in motion are understood, we don't see how the solutions, the answers, and the certainty that market craves can be brought to the table. Our impression is that markets will need to act as the proverbial 'attack dog', forcing the issue on the political agenda. This would not be the first time that markets have had to bark to get a credible policy response. We can't escape the sense that it is probably politically easier to let the markets run loose for the time being to make it apparent that further intervention is needed. But 1000bp on Crossover is much closer than you imagine.

Moreover, every bark comes with a loss of credibility – a loss of faith in the institutional capacity of the European Union to address the fundamental imbalances. Reining in the market eventually may end up taking a bigger effort than policymakers are bargaining for.

The market needs to know what policymakers are committed to and it needs to see actions that validate those commitments. Inaction is just a carte blanche for investors to sit on the sidelines and wait for things to deteriorate further.

Here is another:  Eurozone faces moment of truth in staying together.

And here is a slide presentation by  former co-manager of the GLG Global Macro Fund Raoul Pal as it appeared on The Blaze:

Title:  The End Game

The world has no engine of growth

First recession since 1930's

Per Capita Durable Goods Orders

Percentage of U.S. population employed

U.K. industrial production

EU Industrial output

U.S. GDP since 1802

Weakest foundations to enter a recession on

Debt

Total debt to GDP ratio by country

Series of defaults

All fall down

No. of defaults by crisis period

--

Defaults across the board

End of world?

The end of Europe?

The end of finance?

A collapse in world trade?

Eye of the storm

Connect the dots

Weak foundations

Photo 24 of 30

The big reset

Biggest econ shock the world has ever seen

Nationalization of banks

The whole bond market will be dead

Closure of the banking system

Around 6 months left

Going back in time

What do these bleak forecasts have to do with personal responsibility, the welfare state, economic collapse, and especially, social liberalism?

Plenty!  Social liberalism is at the heart of Europe’s economic turmoil.

Take note, fiscal conservatives in the US – we may be next.

So how, exactly, are these related?  Let me spell it out.

1. Failure to face reality; going back to anger instead of facing the hard work of fiscal constraint.
2. Refusal to take personal responsibility; depending on the welfare state too long, forgetting what it takes to be productive.
3. Expectation that the bigger, stronger government (Germany or maybe even the World Bank and US federal reserve) will come to their rescue and bail them out.
4. At the same time refusing to commit to the fiscal restraint required by the lenders of last resort to assure their bailout won’t be squandered.

Not surprising, George Soros, the quintessential liberal financier, blames the responsible lender nation, Germany, for a share of the problem.  This Soros quote from CNBC: 

“…too much blame had been placed on peripheral euro-zone countries such as heavily indebted Greece and Spain, and that creditors like Germany had to share responsibility.”

Yessiree.  Blame the responsible, more conservative suckers for your woes.  That is what social liberalism is all about.

What is social liberalism?  It is a mindset that discounts God, discounts personal salvation and morality which cripples the quality of personal responsibility, and which increasingly depends on government to provide for the needs of the individual.  It is the opposite of social conservatism which elevates God, personal salvation and morality, which elevates the  quality of personal responsibility, and which minimizes dependence on government to provide for the needs of the individual.

Social conservative is the bedrock foundation and the catalyst for fiscal conservatism.  Without it, you get Europe.

Compounding the problem of excessive dependency on government is the declining birthrates of every one of these nations.   Populations are stagnant or in decline.  Why?  Again related to the hedonism of a socially liberal culture that has decided that pleasure is more important than offspring.  This in turn decreases the demand for goods and services and shrinks the economies of these nations.

And the United States is not far behind.  This is why I have given several presentations on “personal preparedness.”  Stay tuned.  Things will get even more interesting in the coming months.