Category: Christianity

What percentage of Americans identify themselves as Christians?

Obama’s Trip to Ireland: Where was St. Patrick When You Needed Him?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

Obama-Shrinks-2Dateline: Cairo, Egypt – In his Second “Speech to the Muslim World”, President Barack Hussein Obama told a crowd gathered at the University of Cairo, estimated at 250,000, that it was their adherence to Sharia Law and Jihad, that was causing the violence in the world which is being attributed to Muslim Terrorist Acts. Obama told the shocked throng,

If you would only strive for peace with those whom you label “Infidels”, the world would be a better place.

Just kidding.

Actually, though, Obama did make a speech this week in which he attacked a nation’s religious beliefs. And, believe it or not, it was not the United Stated of America…for once.

While speaking to a crowd of 2,000 student at the G8 Summit in Ireland, “Pope” Obama pontificated,

…As someone who knows firsthand how politics can encourage division and discourage cooperation, I admire the Northern Ireland Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly all the more for making power-sharing work. That’s not easy to do. It requires compromise, and it requires absorbing some pain from your own side. I applaud them for taking responsibility for law enforcement and for justice, and I commend their effort to “Building a United Community” — important next steps along your transformational journey.

Because issues like segregated schools and housing, lack of jobs and opportunity — symbols of history that are a source of pride for some and pain for others — these are not tangential to peace; they’re essential to it. If towns remain divided — if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs — if we can’t see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division. It discourages cooperation.

Ultimately, peace is just not about politics. It’s about attitudes; about a sense of empathy; about breaking down the divisions that we create for ourselves in our own minds and our own hearts that don’t exist in any objective reality, but that we carry with us generation after generation.

And I know, because America, we, too, have had to work hard over the decades, slowly, gradually, sometimes painfully, in fits and starts, to keep perfecting our union. A hundred and fifty years ago, we were torn open by a terrible conflict. Our Civil War was far shorter than The Troubles, but it killed hundreds of thousands of our people. And, of course, the legacy of slavery endured for generations.

Even a century after we achieved our own peace, we were not fully united. When I was a boy, many cities still had separate drinking fountains and lunch counters and washrooms for blacks and whites. My own parents’ marriage would have been illegal in certain states. And someone who looked like me often had a hard time casting a ballot, much less being on a ballot.

But over time, laws changed, and hearts and minds changed, sometimes driven by courageous lawmakers, but more often driven by committed citizens. Politicians oftentimes follow rather than lead. And so, especially young people helped to push and to prod and to protest, and to make common cause with those who did not look like them. And that transformed America — so that Malia and Sasha’s generation, they have different attitudes about differences and race than mine and certainly different from the generation before that. And each successive generation creates a new space for peace and tolerance and justice and fairness.

Needless to say, Catholic Leaders in the UK and over here in “the Colonies” are chewing up nails and spitting out thumb tacks.

Yesterday, the American Catholics for Religious Freedom issued a statement, concerning Scooter’s little diatribe:

President Obama’s anti-faith, secular agenda was shamefully on full display yesterday when he told the young people of Northern Ireland that Catholic education and other faith-based schools were divisive and an obstacle to peace. All Americans of faith should be outraged by these comments which clearly telegraph the President’s belief system and are in fact at their core even anti-American.

As a Christian American Conservative, a.k.a. “Bitter Clinger”, I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, I find the speech and behavior quite revealing, about a president who once proudly proclaimed his Christianity, as abcnews.go.com reported in September of 2010…

At a backyard town hall in Albuquerque, NM, Tuesday, President Obama was asked “Why are you a Christian?” The question, from teacher’s assistant Elizabeth A. Murphy, 42, was one of three “hot topics” she raised with the president.

“I’m a Christian by choice,” the president said. “My family didn’t — frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church.”

The president said he “came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead — being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me. And I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace.”

The president said “that’s what I strive to do. That’s what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith.”

As the Professional Wrestler, The Miz, would incredulously remark,

Really? …Really? …Really?

So, insulting and making fun of the belief system of the majority of your own citizens wasn’t enough for you, was it, Scooter? You had to go and show your rear end to a bunch of Irish yutes.

Your “problem” was Christianity is, a strong Christian nation does not serve your purpose, nor that of any other country’s leader, whose political and personal ideology is composed of the teachings of Marx and Alinsky.

That explains why you spoke to a small crowd of 4,500 at the Brandenburg Gate the other day, instead of a crowd like the 200,000 screaming fans who attended your Campaign Rally in 2008, when you were running for the Presidency of the United States of America.

It appears that the Europeans have discovered the empty suit which lies behind the equally empty promise of “Hope and Change”, just as Americans have.

You attack Christianity because, just as Marx discovered, we Christians don’t believe in Idolatry. And, for a Marxist Government to enjoy its initial success, followed by its inevitable collapse, the “President” must be worshiped and adored as infallible, mythical, and of divine origin.

Guess what, Scooter?

You are mythical, because your sketchy, full-of -holes biographical history, elevated you, in the eyes of the Main Stream Media, and the rest of your Liberal Sycophants to mythical proportions. However, you have proven to be quite fallible, and quite lowly in origin. In fact, one might say, “alien”.

Apparently, you believe that all these trips you and your family are making on our dime, will cause the American People to forget your scandals, your poor stewardship, and your positively anti-American Values.

As the old song goes,

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

You once said, that if the going got rough, you would “‘stand with the Muslims”. 

Go ahead and try that, Scooter. They don’t have a very high opinion of you, either.

Until He comes, 

KJ

From Flower Children to Beltway Boys: America’s Crisis of Leadership

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

1960sI remember the 1960s…vaguely. After all, I was just a kid, having been born in 1958. I remember Batman, Mr. Terrific, Beany and Cecil, The Red Skelton Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Lawrence Welk Show, Dragnet, and Adam-12.

I remember the Civil Rights Movement, George Wallace, the Vietnam War, Camelot, and shaking ex-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s hand, after a speech at his Texas Ranch. It seemed huge.

I remember the Beatles,the Monkees, the Rolling Stones, Woodstock, Haight Asbury, the Peace Movement, Love-ins, and Campus sit-ins. I remember Kent State.

I remember Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Willette, Mrs. Holder, Mrs. Archer, Principal F.A Farino, and some of the things that happened to me at Snowden Elementary.

I also remember the day that it was announced over the school intercom that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. I remember writing in my Big Chief Tablet

President Kennedy is dead. Vice-President Johnson is now President.

I remember that fateful night in April of 1968, watching TV in our den in Midtown Memphis, TN, as the Civil Defense Warning popped up on the screen, and an authoritative voice said,

Would all National Guard members, please report to the Armory.

Shortly, after that, President Johnson interrupted programming, coming from the White House, and announced,

I come to you tonight with a heavy heart…

And, nothing was ever the same again.

In yesterday’s Blog, I posed the question,

What in the Sam Hill is going on in this country?

I then wrote about how screwed up our leadership is, and how disheartening it is to see this Shining City on the Hill being turned into a Third World Barrio, right in front of our very eyes.

What could be the cause? Have the Pod People from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers taken over America’s Leadership?

Actually, in a way…they have.

Today’s Senior leadership is comprised of that volatile generation from the 1960s. That generation in which there was seemingly, widespread rebellion against their faith, their families, and…their country.

For all their bragging about Free Love, dropping out, and tuning in…a lot of them were actually very selfish. (History is actually repeating itself with our younger generation of today, but that’s best left for another post.)

That is the generation that is presently in charge of our nation.

What’s bad is, our Junior Leadership is comprised of their children, Americans with names like Sunshine and River, whose raising was left to Dr. Spock, PBS, and MTV.

So, basically, we have a bunch of elected representatives whose life philosophy is

If it feels good, do it.

The Bible tells us that you will know someone by their fruits.

Let’s look at “the fruits” put forth by this bunch of leaders…

1.  Horrible Financial Stewardship – We’re in hock to the Chinese so badly, they’re probably going to start adopting OUR babies. We have a President who is cutting essential services, like hot meals for our soldiers, while his mooch of a wife is joking about visiting her “Homeland” in Ireland. Now, I’ve been told by an Irishman that my heritage is “Black Irish”, but, that’s ridiculous. Congress hasn’t passed a budget in years now, but nobody seems to care. Hey, it’s only money. OUR money.

2. Attempts to take away Americans’ Constitutional Rights – This is actually very ironic, when you think about it. These “Flower Children”, who used to holler about their Constitutional Rights as they were being busted by the police, now could care less about them.  A little power is a dangerous thing. They’re “The Man” now.

3.  Debasing and Redefining of the American Family – Now, in this amoral utopia they are creating, Johnny has 2 Daddies, or 2 Mommas, or a Momma and another Momma who used to be their Daddy….or just a Momma…or just a Daddy…or, they’re being raised by Grandma and Grandpa. And, then, the “pundits” wonder why kids are joining Gangs, seeking “love and acceptance”.

4. Attempting to eliminate Christianity from Americans’ day-to-day lives – From complaining about prayer before high school football games to lawsuits about the Ten Commandments being in Courthouses, the miserable selfish little cretins, who seem content to serve the Darkness, are relentless in their quest to remove the public worship of the One who made us, from Americans’ daily lives. They want to pigeon-hole Christians and force us to worship Our Creator on Sunday Mornings, only, and only then, in government-approved services, where preachers will not be allowed to condemn homosexuality as a sin.

In America today, we are experiencing the Tyranny of the Minority. Average Americans, who love God, their families, and their country, still exist. They are trying desperately to try to make things better for their families. That is the reason that a recent study showed that Americans are leaving the Liberal stronghold of the Northeast and the Left Coast, seeking like minds in America’s Heartland.

There are still plenty of Americans who believe in Traditional American Values. They go to work, they attend church, and they spend time with their families. Despite the enormous pressure put upon them by an increasingly selfish, amoral culture, an anti-American President, and his enablers and minions in Congress and the Main Stream Media, they still “bitterly cling” to their Bibles and guns, remembering those who have gone before, and the sacrifices at home and abroad they made to keep them free.

Can you feel it? There is a stirring in the heart of this nation. The Sleeping Giant is wide awake. Americans have had enough.

The great American Frontiersman, Congressman, and Freedom Fighter, Davy Crockett, once said,

Be sure you are right. Then, go ahead.

We are right, Americans. It’s time to go ahead.

Until He Comes,

KJ.

Father’s Day 2013: A Legacy of Love

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment4 Comments

Today, all across the world, Fathers will be honored by their children, natural, adopted, foster, and those that they took in as one of their own. Did you ever wonder how this Global Remembrance got started?

There are two stories which are attributed as being the origin of Father’s Day.

According to the first tale, it all began in 1910, when Sonora Smart-Dodd of Spokane, Washington, tried to figure out a way in which to honor her dad, a remarkable man, who had single handedly raised six children. Sonora, naturally, loved her dad with all her heart, and wanted everyone to recognize him for what he had done for her entire family. She made the decision to declare day of tribute, a Father’s Day, if you will, on her father’s birthday – June 19.

The next year, Sonora contacted the local churches in an attempt to get them to throw their support behind the celebration, but they simply laughed her off. After that setback, it took a while before Sonora’s proposal once again started gaining attention.

A bill in support of a national remembrance of Father’s Day was introduced in 1913. The bill was approved by US President Woodrow Wilson three years later. The bill received further support from President Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

This brought about the formation of a National Father’s Day Committee in New York within the next two years. However, our Federal Government, not exactly being strong in the pursuit alacrity, took another 30 years before a Joint Resolution of Congress officially recognized Father’s Day. Then, implementation of the bill was postponed another 16 years until President Richard Nixon declared third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1972.

The second story of the origin of Father’s Day involves Dr. Robert Webb of West Virginia. According to this version, the first Father’s Day service was conducted by Webb at the Central Church of Fairmont in 1908.

Around my house, we always thought that Hallmark and Walmart invented it.

I have written before about my Father. At the time, I focused on his service in World War II.  However, there was more to my Daddy than that. He was an American Hero at home, as well.

Daddy married my mother in 1948. They were both working at Sears and Roebuck at the time, and they were both divorced. My mother had a young daughter from her first marriage, whom Daddy raised as his own.

My beloved sister came along shortly thereafter, and, nine years later, I was born. To this day, I swear that they were going to name me “Oops”.

My earliest memories of my Daddy were of him making me breakfast, while singing hymns around the kitchen. My Daddy sang in church choirs, and had a glorious tenor voice.

My Daddy is the one who made sure that I was in Sunday School every Sabbath morning, and in his own, gentle way, he led me to the Savior.

My father, uprooted us to Florida when I was a toddler, and ran a Pure Oil Station with my uncle Mallory, a Pensacola cop, for a short while. When we returned to my hometown of Memphis, he and my mother went back to work at Sears, where they stayed until their retirement in the early 80s.

My sister used to take me with her to pick up our Daddy, and I would have a big time sitting on the tractors and go karts there in the Farm Store, which he managed.

The great thing about Sears back in those days, was the fact that they had a candy counter. Every payday, he brought home to me “a prize”, of either malted milk balls, chocolate-covered raisins, or fresh, warm cashews.

On the days when Daddy didn’t work, he spent time with me. We would go to Court Square in Downtown Memphis, and feed the squirrels, or he would take me to the Memphis Zoo, and walk me around while I was sitting on top of a pony.

As I got older, he ferried me back and forth to school and school events.

He also was there for me, during all those hours spent in the Doctor’s Office and the Hospital, as I struggled to breathe with severe asthma.

My Daddy’s name for me was “Brother”, as in “Baby Brother”

He loved to say,with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye,

Hold on to something, Brother. I’m taking the garbage out.

On Saturdays that he was off, our ritual included Saturday Morning Wrestling, at 11:00 a.m., starring the Fabulous Jackie Fargo, Tojo Yamamoto, Don and Al Greene, and some  smart-aleck kid named Jerry Lawler.

That was usually followed by a Tarzan or Jungle Jim movie starring Johnny Weissmuller.

I got my love of music and comedy from my Daddy, spending hours watching The Three Stooges, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, and The Lawrence Welk Show.

If there was one thing, in this life, I was certain of, from the day I was born, until he went to be with God on December 29, 1997, was that my Daddy loved me.

Right now, in America, it is harder than ever to be a Dad.  Any male, who is not impotent, can sire a child…as is being proven daily across our country.

However, it takes a man to be a Daddy, a Papa, a Pop, a Pops, somebody’s Old Man, or, simply, Dad.

I’ve had the privilege of having a hand in raising three step-sons, one nephew, and one very special daughter.  I would not give back one moment of those experiences for anything that this world can offer.

I was not a perfect role model.  I made mistakes.  But, looking back, I know, in my heart, that I’ve made a difference in their lives. And I thank the One who made me for that opportunity.

I pray that I was able to pass along at least some of my Daddy’s legacy of Christian Love to those I have had a hand in raising. I now have a 5 year old grandson, whom I get to spoil, every now and then.

Dads…it costs nothing to pay attention….and give love.

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6

Happy Father’s Day!

Remembering D-Day…69 Years Later

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

D-Day, also called the Battle of Normandy, was fought on June 6, 1944, between the Allied nations and German forces occupying Western Europe. To this day, 69 years later, it  still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history. Almost three million troops crossed the English Channel from England to Normandy to be used as human cannon fodder in an invasion of occupied France.

The twelve nations who participated in the invasion included Australia, Canada, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, Greece, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, and, of course. the United States of America.

The codename for the invasion was Operation Overlord. The assault phase was known as Operation Neptune. Operation Neptune began on D-Day (June 6, 1944) and ended on June 30. Operation Overlord also began on D-Day, and ended with the crossing of the River Seine on August 19.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower faced a daunting task in the planning of such a massive invasion. He would have to move his forces 100 miles across the English Channel and storm a heavily fortified coastline. His enemy was the weapon-and-tank-superior German army commanded by the “Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel, one of the most brilliant generals of the war.

Less than 15 percent of the young men called upon to sacrifice their lives for our freedom in the invasion had ever seen combat.

A crossing of the unpredictable and dangerous English Channel had not been attempted since 1688. Once the invading forces set out, there was no turning back. The channel was soon hosting a 5,000-vessel armada that stretched as far as the eye could see, transporting both men and vehicles across the channel to the French beaches. Not to mention, the Allies also launched 4,000 smaller landing craft and more than 11,000 aircraft.

By the time the sun set on June 6, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded, and more than 100,000 had made it ashore, capturing French coastal villages. Within weeks, supplies were being unloaded at Utah and Omaha beachheads at the rate of more than 20,000 tons per day. By June 11, more than 326,000 troops, 55,000 vehicles, and 105,000 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches. By June 30, the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy. Allied forces crossed the River Seine on August 19.

There has never been an exact count of the sacrifices made on D-Day. Although, it is estimated that more than 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded, or went missing during the battle. 209,000 of those who lost their lives were Allied forces. In addition to almost 200,000 German troops killed or wounded, the Allies also captured 200,000 soldiers. Captured Germans were sent to American prisoner-of-war camps at the rate of 30,000 per month, from D-Day until Christmas 1944. Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed during the battle.

Basically, the invasion of Normandy was a success, due to sheer force of numbers. By July 1944, some one million Allied troops, mostly American, British, and Canadian, were entrenched in Normandy. During the great invasion, the Allies assembled nearly three million men and stored 16 million tons of arms, munitions, and supplies in Britain.

Among the young men who stepped off those boats, in a hail of gunfire, was a fellow named Edward, whom everyone called Ned, from the small town of Helena, Arkansas.  Already in his young life, Ned had been forced to drop out of school in the sixth grade, in order to work at the local movie theatre to help support his mother, brother, and sister faced with the ravages of the Great Depression.

He was a gentle man who loved to laugh and sing, having recorded several 78 rpm records in the do-it-yourself booths of the day. And now, he found himself, a Master Sergeant in an Army Engineering Unit, stepping off a boat into the unknown, watching his comrades being mercilessly gunned down around him.

Ned, along with the rest of his unit who survived the initial assault, would go on to assist in the cleaning out of the Concentration Camps, bearing witness to man’s inhumanity to man.

The horrors he saw had a profound effect on Ned.  One which he would keep to himself for the remainder of his life.  While his children knew that he served with an Engineering Unit in World War II, they did not know the full extent of his service, until they found his medal, honoring his participation in the Invasion of Normandy, going through his belongings, after he passed away on December 29, 1997.

How do I know so much about Ned?  He was my Daddy.  You see, my love of Christ and, of this country, comes from my Earthly father, 40 years my senior.

I was raised by members of the Greatest Generation.  It is today that we pause to remember their sacrifices at home and abroad. 

May this day also serve as a reminder of the sacrifices made by our Best and Brightest and their families, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

May God bless them all and may He hold them in the hollow of His hand. 

Until He Comes,

KJ

America: No God = No Peace

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

American ChristianityHave you noticed a general unhappiness in our country? People don’t seem to smiling as easily any more. They don’t seem to be as outgoing and friendly. They tend to pass each other on the street, and, even if they know one another, they just keep on walking.  Let’s explore some possible reasons…

Breitbart.com reports that…

Only a third of U.S. adults say they are very happy — minorities show particularly pronounced declines in the past two years, a U.S. survey indicates.

A Harris Poll of 2,345 U.S. adults surveyed online April 10-15 by Harris Interactive found certain groups, such as minorities, recent graduates and the disabled, trended downward in the last couple of years.

“Our happiness index offers insight into what’s on the minds of Americans today and is a reflection of the state of affairs in our country,” Regina Corso, senior vice president of the Harris Poll, said in a statement. “While the attitudes on the economy may be improving, we’re seeing that this is not translating into an improvement in overall happiness.”

Since last measured two years ago, the Happiness Index was especially low among the Hispanic-American population. It is important to note that a causal link cannot be established, it might not be a coincidence that this drop coincides with a political landscape that has seen frequent, sometimes contentious, discussion of immigration policy in recent months, Corso said.

Americans earning under $50,000 per year were less likely to qualify as very happy than in 2011 — down from 33 percent to 29 percent among those earning less than $35,000, and from 35 percent to 32 percent among those earning between $35,000-$49,999.

Those 50 and older were more likely to be very happy than younger people.

If money CAN buy happiness, we’re in a heap o’ trouble…because none of us have any.

According to an article posted on Friday by CBSMoneywatch.com…

Increasing housing prices and the stock market”s posting all-time highs haven’t helped the plight most Americans. The average U.S. household has recovered only 45 percent of the wealth they lost during the recession, according to a report released yesterday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

This finding is a very different picture than one painted in a report earlier this year by the Fed that calculated Americans as a whole had regained 91 percent of their losses. The writers of the report released yesterday point out that the earlier number is based on aggregate household-net-worth data. However, this isn’t adjusted for inflation, population growth or the nature of the wealth. Further, they say much of recovery in net worth is because of the stock market, which means most of the improvement has been a boon only to wealthy families.

“Clearly, the 91 percent recovery of wealth losses portrayed by the aggregate nominal measure paints a different picture than the 45 percent recovery of wealth losses indicated by the average inflation-adjusted household measure,” the report said. “Considering the uneven recovery of wealth across households, a conclusion that the financial damage of the crisis and recession largely has been repaired is not justified,” the researchers said.

Household wealth plunged $16 trillion from the top of the real estate bubble in the third quarter of 2007 to the bottom of the bust in the first quarter of 2009. By the last three months of 2012, American households as a group had regained $14.7 trillion.

The report says almost two-thirds of the increase in aggregate household wealth is due to rising stock prices. This has disproportionately benefited the richest households: About 80 percent of stocks are held by the wealthiest 10 percent of the population.

Much of the total wealth of middle- and lower-income households is based on home values, not stocks. Even though home prices have increased nearly 11 percent in the past year, they remain about 30 percent below their peak.

While Americans continue to pay down their debt, the report says debt levels and problems with rebuilding net worth are the main reasons the recovery has been so slow. Also, the people who bore the brunt of the recession through job losses and reduced income were the ones who had borrowed the most.

The report found that members of the households that suffered the most financially were less educated, relatively young or black or Hispanic, or some combination of these factors. Those families tended to have low savings and high debt, with much of their wealth based on housing.

The poorest households have felt the sharpest losses as a consequence of the recession: “While many Americans lost wealth during the Great Recession, younger, less-educated and nonwhite families lost the greatest percentage of their wealth,” James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, said in a statement. “Household deleveraging, or paying down debt, has played a key role in the recent recession and the slow recovery.”

Americans are being besieged from all sides. Not only is the government taking our money, but, this new Progressive Culture around us, is succeeding in eliminating Godly Influences from our everyday life.

Gallup.com tells us that…

Over three-quarters of Americans (77%) say religion is losing its influence on American life, while 20% say religion’s influence is increasing. These represent Americans’ most negative evaluations of the impact of religion since 1970, although similar to the views measured in recent years.

Americans over the years have generally been more likely to say religion is losing rather than increasing its influence in American life. In addition to the previous peak in views that religion was losing its influence measured in 1969 and 1970, at least 60% of Americans thought religion was losing its influence in 1991-1994, in 1997 and 1999, in 2003, and from 2007 to the present.

Americans were more likely to say religion was increasing rather than decreasing its influence when the question was first asked in 1957, in 1962, at a few points in the 1980s during the Reagan administration, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in late 2001 and early 2002, and in 2005. The high point for Americans’ belief that religion is increasing its influence, 71%, came in December 2001.

These perceptions of religion’s influence in American society are not related to Americans’ personal religiosity, as measured by church attendance or the self-reported importance of religion in one’s life. In general, highly religious Americans are neither more nor less likely to say religion is losing its influence than those who are not religious. There is, however, a modest relationship between Americans’ ideology as well as partisanship and their views of the influence of religion, with liberals and Democrats more likely than conservatives and Republicans to say religion’s influence is increasing in American society.

And, of course Progressives would be saying that, because the religion they are referring to is a modified “Christianity”, which preaches the salvation of the “Collective” and “Social Justice” for all.

Working hand-in-hand with “The State”, i.e. the Obama Administration, Liberal/Progressive Churches preach this watered-down version of the Gospel to their unwitting congregations, “tickling their ears” and telling them that whatever gets them through the night, is alright.

In these Progressive Churches, the glorification of social programs and modern culture has taken the place of the Glorification of God and the hunger for His Word.

I mean, Gay Marriages are being performed in America’s National Cathedral in Washington, DC!

And, in churches around the country, Bible Studies, Youth Meetings, and Choir Practices, have been replaced with Studies on Philosophy, Voter Registration, sponsored by Organizing For America (Obama), and Yoga Classes.

The very Progressives in Power who have been whining for years about the Separation of Church and State, are the ones responsible for the removal of religion from American’s Everyday Life.

And, the worst part about it…Americans let them.

As I have gotten older (54), I have noticed that, concerning the two generations that have come after me, have consciously moved away from organized religion. Their movement is a result of Christ not being taught in their homes, and parents and other adult role models not providing a Godly example in their young lives, as they were growing up.  Without someone providing that example in their young lives, as my Daddy did for me, they have no Anchor to hold them steady through the Storms of Life and no Solid Rock upon which to stand.

And, unfortunately, that lack of Moral Compass, not only affects these two newest generations of adults, but all of those in their lives, and, eventually, society, as well.

Which is why we are now living in an America, which is well on its way to embracing a nanny-State Mentality, complete with its Situational Ethics and “50 Shades of Gray” Morality.

Gallup.com tells us that 78% of Americans proclaim Christ as their Personal Savior. 

Well, Americans, its time to return to Him.

For our sake, our children’s sake, our grandchildren’s sake, and our country’s sake.

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.- Ronald Reagan

Until He Comes,

KJ

Assad Vows to Attack Israel. He Doesn’t Know Who He’s Messing With.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

americanisraelilapelpinSyrian President Bashar Assad announced in an interview yesterday,  that he is “confident in victory” in his country’s civil war, and he warned that his country would retaliate for any future Israeli airstrike on his territory.

Assad also told the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar that Russia has fulfilled some of its weapons contracts recently, but he was vague on whether this included advanced S-300 air defense systems.

The comments were in line with a forceful and confident message the regime has been sending in recent days, even as the international community attempts to launch a peace conference in Geneva, possibly next month. The strong tone coincided with recent military victories in battles with armed rebels trying to topple him.

The interview was broadcast as Syria’s main political opposition group appeared to fall into growing disarray.

The international community had hoped the two sides would start talks on a political transition. However, the opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said earlier Thursday that it would not attend a conference, linking the decision to a regime offensive on the western Syrian town of Qusair and claiming that hundreds of wounded people were trapped there.

Assad, who appeared animated and gestured frequently in the TV interview, said he has been confident from the start of the conflict more than two years ago that he would be able to defeat his opponents.

“Regarding my confidence about victory, had we not had this confidence, we wouldn’t have been able to fight in this battle for two years, facing an international attack,” he said. Assad portrayed the battle to unseat him as a “world war against Syria and the resistance” — a reference to the Lebanese Hezbollah, a close ally.

“We are confident and sure about victory, and I confirm that Syria will stay as it was,” he said, “but even more than before, in supporting resistance fighters in all the Arab world.”

Assad has said he would stay in power at least until elections scheduled in 2014, but he went further in the interview, saying he “will not hesitate to run again” if the Syrian people want him to do so.

Assad, evidently has never read the accounts of the Six- Day War.

The Six-Day War took place in June 1967. The Six-Day War was fought between June 5th and June 10th. The Israelis defended the war as a preventative military effort to counter what the Israelis saw as an impending attack by Arab nations that surrounded Israel. The Six-Day War was initiated by General Moshe Dayan, the Israeli’s Defence Minister.

The war was against Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Israel believed that it was only a matter of time before the three Arab states co-ordinated a massive attack on Israel. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, the United Nations had established a presence in the Middle East, especially at sensitive border areas. The United Nations was only there with the agreement of the nations that acted as a host to it. By May 1967, the Egyptians had made it clear that the United Nations was no longer wanted in the Suez region. Gamal Nasser, leader of Egypt, ordered a concentration of Egyptian military forces in the sensitive Suez zone. This was a highly provocative act and the Israelis only viewed it one way – that Egypt was preparing to attack. The Egyptians had also enforced a naval blockade which closed off the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping.

Due to the superior size of the Invasion Force, the world’s  news media reported the imminent defeat of Israel as a fait accompli.

The Invaders were attacking God’s Chosen People from all sides.

Egyptian forces invaded Palestine from the South-west, captured Gaza and were thrusting along the coast to link up with –

Arab legion troops driving from the west towards Tel Aviv, the capital of the new State of Israel.

Another Egyptian column thrust 30 miles across the southern desert and entered Beersheba.

Lebanese and Syrian forces were about to attack from the north.

Iraqi and Trans-Jordan forces were moving in from the North-east.

An Arab legion column striking west from Jericho were only ten miles from Tel Aviv.

Israel’s chances of defeating the Invaders appeared hopeless. As an insurance policy, some of the invading nations had actually forbidden any armaments or weapons to be sold to Israel.

Additionally, the crack Arab Legion forces were trained and led by British Army officers.

Inexplicably, within days, all the invading forces were retreating as fast as their camels could carry them!

The Egyptians were forced back to the Nile. Jordan’s legions had to give up all their area on the west side of the Jordan River. Israel occupied Lebanon and the Golan Heights.

Secular History tells us that it was a combination of Israel taking out the planes of the Egyptian Air Force, while they were still on the ground, and the Commander of their Tank Brigade surrendering, because the reflection off of the desert floor multiplied the size of the Israeli Force, making it seem like the Invaders were surrounded by superior numbers.

However, at the time of Israel’s victory, strange rumors started making the rounds.

Invaders from the south reported that they were confronted by legions of unknown troops clothed in white!

And, the thing was…the Israeli troops reported similar stories!

The outcome of Six Day War of 1967 was very important, because, for the first time for 2,520 years, Israel captured and governed Jerusalem.

For all those years before, Jerusalem was under the thumb of  non-Jewish powers, but their control was prophesied only to continue ‘until the times allotted to the Gentiles are completed,’ Jesus said (Luke 21:24).

Naturally, Christians everywhere got very excited at the significance of this event.

The attack on Israel come out of nowhere. So…how was it that Israel gained such a rapid victory?

God’s Cavalry was there for God’s Chosen People in the Six Day War in 1967.

Arab generals said, ‘they did not know that Israel had large cavalry units.’

Why was Israel favored by God with such an intervention? Was it because they deserved it? The answer is ‘No’.

God kept his promise, found in Leviticus 26: 42-44…

42 I will remember my promise to Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. I will also remember the land. 43 The land, abandoned by them, will enjoy its time to honor the Lord while it lies deserted without them. They must accept their guilt because they rejected my rules and looked at my laws with disgust. 44 Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or look at them with disgust. I will not reject or cancel my promise to them, because I am the Lord their God.

Assad needs to remember that. President Barack Hussein Obama does, too.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Memorial Day 2013: Honoring Our Brightest and Best

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

Today is a day of solemn remembrance, during which we honor our fallen heroes.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women’s groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead” (Source: Duke University’s Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860’s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50’s on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye’s Heights (the Luminaria Program). And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”

On a night in 1966, a 7 year old was laying on his family’s den couch in Memphis, TN, watching his favorite TV Series “Batman” with a fever of 105, brought about by a severe bronchial infection. Tending to that sick child were 3 veterans of Word War II: his Daddy, a Master Sergeant with the Army Engineers, his Uncle “R” (Robert), US Air Force, and his Uncle Perriman, a full-blooded Indian from Albuquerque, who was an Army Corpsman.

Those three veterans, now all gone, took turns putting cold washcloths under the child’s arms and on his forehead, until his fever finally broke, sometime during the night.

That child was me.

I was privileged to be raised by members of the Greatest Generation. The legacy that they gave to me of love of God, Family, and Country is a heritage that I hold very dear.

It is today that we pause to remember their sacrifices at home and abroad.  Not only theirs, but the sacrifices made by our Brightest and Best, and their families, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

May God bless them all and may He hold them in the hollow of His hand.

America: Into Darkness

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

American ChristianityLater this afternoon, my Bride and I are going to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. As you can see by the title of this post, the title of the movie got me to thinking about our nation.

Our nation’s trek into darkness has been going on for quite some time now, starting with Woodrow Wilson’s Progressive Policies, on through the LBJ’s Great Society and the removal of God from our nation’s classrooms.

Once the concepts of consistent morality and unchangeable ethics were removed from the classroom, you had generations of American kids growing up thinking that, to quote John Lennon…

Whatever gets you through the night…it’s alright…it’s alright.

What they did not take into account was the consequences of their actions.  For the past several decades, America has been reaping those consequences…

Courtesy of lifenews.com…

From the SBA List breakdown of the numbers from the PPFA annual report:

During fiscal year 2011-2012, Planned Parenthood reported receiving a record $542 million in taxpayer funding in the form of government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements. Taxpayer funding consists of 45%3 of Planned Parenthood’s annual revenue.

In 2011, Planned Parenthood performed a record high 333,964 abortions.

Over the past three reported years (2009-2011), Planned Parenthood has performed nearly one million abortions (995,687).

Planned Parenthood reported a total of three million clients in 2011, meaning that 11% of all Planned Parenthood clients received an abortion.

In 2011, abortions made up 92% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services, while prenatal care and adoption referrals accounted for only 7% (28,674) and 0.6% (2,300), respectively. For every adoption referral, Planned Parenthood performed 145 abortions.

Cancer screening & prevention services and contraceptive services provided by Planned Parenthood continue to drop. Contraceptive services have dropped by 12% since 2009, and cancer screening & prevention services have dropped by 29%.

Planned Parenthood reported $87.4 million in excess revenue, and more than $1.2 billion in net assets.

“Planned Parenthood has spent much of the last few years demanding that taxpayers add millions more to their coffers, citing their non-profit status and so-called focus on women’s health,” said SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser. “What have we received for our money? While government subsidies to Planned Parenthood have reached an all time high, so too has the number of lives ended by this profit-driven abortion business. Destroying nearly one million children in three years is not health care and does not reflect a concern for vulnerable women and girls. As Planned Parenthood’s funding goes up, abortions increase and real health services for women go down.”

“As if these numbers weren’t already horrifying, Planned Parenthood has upped the ante even further by mandating that all affiliates provide abortions beginning this year. Americans are sick and tired of underwriting the nation’s largest abortion business. We call on Congress to immediately investigate and defund Planned Parenthood,” she added.

Our Tax Money goes to fund Planned Parenthood, and butchers like the Philadelphia Mass Murder, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, whose trial was largely ignored by the Main Stream Media, until Conservative Americas forced them to cover it.

However, the worshipers of Baal and Molech were not just content to kill American babies, now they want to introduce pederasty to our nation’s youth.

In yesterday’s Blog, The BSA…To GOD and My Country…No Longer, I wrote about the vote by the Boy Scouts of America to allow “openly gay” young males to join the Scouts. 60% of the nation’s Scout Leaders voted in favor of it.

The blowback has been deafening. Unfortunately, though, it will do no good.

This effort, as with the three scandals our President and his Administration are facing, comes from our Halls of Power. Just as our Brightest and Best, America’s Armed Forces, were turning into Lab Rats, in a Social Engineering Experiment by our government, designed to mainstream the sexually deviant behavior of homosexuality, so have the Boy Scouts been chosen for that “honor”, because, just as it was proven when prayer was removed from schools, our youth are the most impressionable among us.

The Boy Scout Council thought that by voting against allow Homosexual Adults to serve as Troop Leaders, that they were keeping our children safe. All their vote did was forestall the inevitable. 

That will be the next shoe to drop.

America’s Progressives, who are in power are relentless in their mission to remove the God of Our Fathers from “the Shining City on a Hill”.

Just as the Ancient Greeks and the Roman Empire, through their acceptance and acquiescence to the trappings of a morally bankrupt society, allowed their enemies, foreign and domestic to overrun them and destroy their civilizations, so is our nation, carved out of the blood and sacrifice of those who have gone before, in danger of allowing the Tyranny of the Minority to subjugate the 785 of us who claim Jesus Christ as our Personal Savior.

The thing about a slippery slope is: once you start down it, its hard to climb back up.

The Good News? 

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. – John 12:46 (ESV)

Jesus Christ is over all…and, He loves us.

Stay strong, Americans…and PRAY FOR OUR NATION.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

The BSA…To GOD and My Country…No Longer

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

BoyscoutinchurchThursday, the Boy Scouts of America bowed to the Pagan Deities of Progressivism and Political Correctness, forswearing the Christian Heritage upon with they were founded, by voting to allow openly gay adolescents into the Boys Scouts. At the same time, they attempted to cover their tracks by not allowing gays to be Pack Leaders.

That’s just a matter of time.

On Friday, the Main Street Media lavishly applauded the decision as if it was the greatest thing since their messiah, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), ascended to the Throne of the Regime.

If those hedonistic buffoons had been around during the Roman Empire, they would have rooted for the Lions.

Conservative Christian  Churches do not feel the same way:

The decision has been met with disappointment among American faith groups.

The Assemblies of God said in a statement that it “regrets” the outcome of Thursday’s vote.

It added that it could no longer endorse its young members joining the BSA and would instead be encouraging them to become part of its own similar programme, the Royal Rangers.

“We believe – as do a majority of Boy Scout volunteer leaders and parents – that this is not the best policy for BSA, nor for the young men it serves,” the Church said.

“We believe that the BSA policy change will lead to a mass exodus from the Boy Scout programme, as Assemblies of God and many other churches can no longer support groups that are part of an organisation allowing members who are openly homosexual.”

The president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, Frank Page, told the Baptist Press he was “deeply saddened” by the change.

“We know that the pressures exerted against the voting members of the 1,400 chartered organisations by homosexual activist groups have been unrelenting,” he said.

“We are grateful for each voting member who voted in the minority; but our sadness for the Scouting organisation as a whole cannot be overstated.”

He went on to say that the vote “ushers in a sea-change in the credibility of the Boy Scouts of America as a viable boys’ organisation for millions of Americans who believe strongly in the principles of biblical morality”.

“We continue to pray for our country. We believe we are in desperate need of a genuine spiritual awakening that will transform lives through the power of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.

The Boy Scouts are over one hundred years old. On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement began in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys. Baden-Powell was already well known by English boys, and thousands of them quickly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and a lot of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain.

Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain in 1910, for his 217-day defense of Mafeking in the South African War. Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience. English boys really took to the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate games using the book. Upon hearing about this, Baden-Powell decided to write a nonmilitary field manual for British youth that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds.

First, though, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire where they set up camp. With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scouts meeting was a huge success.

American Scouting began with an event that happened in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce become lost in the fog and a Boy Scout came to his aid. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, and explained to Boyce that, as a Boy Scout, he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. The gesture inspired Boyce to start several regional U.S. youth organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America. Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the movement soon spread throughout the country.

In 1916, Baden-Powell began the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the world. He died in 1941.

Since then, scouting has produced a lot of good men, rooted in faith and trained to be leaders.

I remember it like yesterday, I was in Seventh Grade, and we were living in an area of Memphis, behind the Veterans’ Cemetery, affectionately known as “Nutbush”. I was a sickly undersized asthmatic kid, who was always getting picked on in the neighborhood. Anyway, my buddy Bobby and his older brother Ronny were Boy Scouts in a troop which their Dad, a mechanic, was the Scout Leader of. They asked me to join up, so I did. It was a lot of fun, and I “set the record” for making Tenderfoot, by learning all the knots and stuff in two days.

Unfortunately though, my severe asthma kept me from going out on the camping trips, so I had to drop out of the Boy Scouts.

That being said, I believe what irritates me the most about this whole situation, is them turning an organization with Christian roots, into a Liberal Social Engineering Experiment, just as they have our Armed Forces.

Being a Boy Scout shouldn’t be about discovering your sexual preference, it should be about learning self-reliance, love of God and Country, and how to be a leader of men.

On my honor I will do my best 
To do my duty to God and my country 
and to obey the Scout Law; 
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, 
mentally awake, and morally straight.

The BSA’s vote blows their oath all to Hades, doesn’t it?

Texas Governor Rick Perry issued a statement expressing his feelings on the matter, yesterday:

The Boys Scouts of America has been built upon the values of faith and family for more than 100 years and today’s decision contradicts generations of tradition in the name of political correctness. While I will always cherish my time as a scout and the life lessons I learned, I am greatly disappointed with this decision.

From scouting.org:

The 12th point of the Scout Law, Reverent, represents a Scout’s obligation to personal reflection and spirituality. Religion is an important component of Scouting, and it can bring both you and your boys closer to a higher power.

But discussing this sensitive subject with your unit’s youth members isn’t always easy, especially in such a diverse society. Knowing what to say without offending anyone can be tricky.

Don’t worry, though, because with the help of some user-friendly materials and a little planning, your Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venturers can earn religious emblems that represent their devotion to faith.

Religious awards are available for adults, too, but only through nomination after years of service.

Adults who earn these awards have given dutiful service to the Scouting program and to their religious institution.

To better understand these awards, you should know that the Boy Scouts of America espouses no official religion. Instead, each religious institution has developed its own emblem program to serve its followers, beginning in 1939 with the Ad Altare Dei emblem for Roman Catholics.

With the help of an approved religious counselor and completion of an emblems program, Scouts can earn a medal and its accompanying square knot that are both approved for wear on the BSA uniform.

But they don’t have to stop there. Scouts can earn additional age-appropriate religious emblems as they advance through the Scouting program.

So…what “spirituality” is the Boy Scouts of America going to explore, now? Buddhism? Hinduism? EST? 

Because it sure won’t be Christianity anymore.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Obama’s IRS

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

nationaldayofprayerI have always been told that prayer is a private thing.  Evidently, that’s no longer the case in Obama’s America.

The Thomas More Society is a national not-for-profit law firm that provides pro-bono representation with a focus on life, marriage, and religious liberty. Headquartered in Chicago, the firm provides these services from local trial courts all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the firm presented over 150 pages of analysis and evidence to the House Ways and Means Committee concerning repeated IRS harassment of pro-life organizations. Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) requested the memorandum, which was prepared by Thomas More Society President Thomas Brejcha, Executive Director Peter Breen, and Special Counsel Sally Wagenmaker.

The material they prepared presents solid evidence of IRS harassment of pro-life organizations dating back to 2009.

According to the Press Release, prepared by Tom Ciesielka of the Thomas More Society,

The memo details the history of IRS misconduct in the cases of three organizations represented by the Thomas More Society. The abuse dates back further than the now publicized 2010 complaints and extends beyond the IRS’s recently exposed Cincinnati office to also include the tax agency’s California operations in the charges of blatant bias. 

The IRS office in El Monte, California, began harassing Christian Voices for Life of Fort Bend County, Texas in 2011. In a series of questions penned by Exempt Organization Specialist Tyrone Thomas from the California office, the IRS asked a series of unwarranted questions ordering Christian Voices for Life without any foundation, to explain its content, message, and prayers as if they were engaging in highly offensive or criminal behavior. 

Coalition for Life of Iowa found itself in the IRS’s crosshairs when the group applied for tax exempt status in October 2008. Nearly ten months of interrogation about the group’s opposition to Planned Parenthood included a demand by a Ms. Richards from the IRS’ Cincinnati office unlawfully insisted that all board members sign a sworn declaration promising not to picket/protest Planned Parenthood. Further questioning by the IRS requested detailed information about the content of the group’s prayer meetings, educational seminars, and signs their members hold outside Planned Parenthood. 

In yet a third matter, an IRS agent in their Chicago office repeatedly harassed Daniel and Angela Michael of Small Victories, a pro-life organization, with an intrusive investigation, calling the leaders every 2-3 weeks over the course of 2011, beginning in January of that year. The IRS officially closed its investigation in January 2012, having found no illegal activities.

Are we still in America?

After Lenin and the Bolsheviks took over Mother Russia, Russian Orthodoxy, the predominant faith in Russia, was persecuted almost to extinction within 20 years. The Communists slaughtered hundreds of thousands of priests, sisters, and brothers.

Between 1917 and 1937, more than 50 million people were murdered by KGB extermination squads or in death camps, and 8 million people died of starvation in man-made famines designed to consolidate Communist power. All land was confiscated by the state.

Those who were left alive were allowed to live under Communist totalitarian control to help rally the people to fight the Nazi German invasion in 1939.

The Commies let some churches stay open if they were licensed by the Communist government. Of course,they were very limited in what they could do: they could celebrate liturgies and the sacraments, but they could not teach Russian Orthodoxy to children or to adults.

The Orthodox Church became just another a highly regulated arm of the Soviet government, and all newly ordained priests and bishops became agents or cooperators of the Secret Police (KGB). The sacraments of baptism and marriage, as well as funerals, were usually performed only after substantial fees were paid.

In all levels of the Soviet School System, Students were forced to learn and believe atheism as scientific truth. This belief system was reinforced in all youth organizations, as well.

There were no private Christian schools or clubs.

The fear of persecution and government reprisal during the period in which Joe Stalin ruled Russia (1927-52) made parents afraid to tell their children about the Triune God.

It only took two generations for Russia to become an atheistic society.

Freedom of religion finally came back to Russia in 1991. However, by then, less than 25% of the population were Christians.

As it stands today in the former Soviet Union, less than 0.50% (one-half of one percent) practice any faith at all.

Are we headed in that direction?

I mean, look at the brazenness of  The Obama Administration. Never in my wildest dreams, could I imagine an agency of OUR government, asking a Christian what they prayed about!

My Lord.

Did any of us ever think that this would happen in a land founded by Christian men and women?

The U. S. House Judiciary Committee wrote the following in 1854,

Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle… In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity… That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.

When you tell a Liberal that the Founders of our country were Christians, they always bring up Thomas Jefferson, claiming he was a Deist…or something.

Here is what Jefferson had to say about it:

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.65

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

Jefferson, while President, allowed church services to be held on Sunday mornings in the Capitol Building, which he attended. The practice continued until 1848.

So, what can we do about this encroaching darkness, brokered by an administration who is seeking to turn us into a Marxist nation, with limited personal freedoms, dictated by the State?

President Ronald Reagan said,

I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. We need God’s help to guide our nation through stormy seas. But we can’t expect Him to protect America in a crisis if we just leave Him over on the shelf in our day-to-day living.

One of those whom Obama’s IRS attacked, Rev. Billy Graham, once remarked,

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.

My fellow Americans, it is high time we started a National Conversation with Our Creator.

Until He Comes,

KJ