Tag: Christianity

What percentage of Americans identify themselves as Christians?

The Death of American Christianity Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

American Christianity 2Is America losing the “Faith of Our Fathers”?

In an article titled “Confidence in Religion at New Low, but Not Among Catholics”, gallup.com posted that

PRINCETON, N.J. — Americans’ confidence in the church and organized religion has fallen dramatically over the past four decades, hitting an all-time low this year of 42%. Confidence in religion began faltering in the 1980s, while the sharpest decline occurred between 2001 and 2002 as the Roman Catholic Church grappled with a major sexual abuse scandal. Since then, periodic improvements have proved temporary, and it has continued to ratchet lower.

At first glance, this article should be upsetting to the 74% of Americans, including myself, who, as seems to be the “cool” word this week, self-identify as Christian Americans.

“Organized Religion”, a term usually spoken in derision by those seeking to somehow impugn the generations-old practice of Christian Americans to be a member of and attend the weekly worship service of the denomination and church building of their choice, is being used here by the Liberals up in Princeton, NJ, to further degrade the spiritual backbone of the “Shining City Upon a Hill”, as President Ronald Reagan referred to our country.

For what now seems like an eternity, those on the left side of Political Aisle, have focused their attention on “radically changing” America.

They soon realized that they simply could not do it through popular culture and educational indoctrination, inundating America’s children with both overt and subliminal imaging designed to countermand the Traditional American Values that they were being raised with, in normal American Households, out here in “Flyover Country”, otherwise known as America’s Heartland…or “the Red States”.

Modern Liberals soon figured out that the way to program Americans into believing that “all paths lead to God” and that cradle-to-grave Nanny-State Government were the new American Standards for living our daily lives, was to turn Christian American Houses of Worship away from being instructors of the Word of God and a sanctuary in which to worship Our Creator, to, instead, being purveyors of the joys of Popular Culture. Wednesday Night Bible Studies were soon replaced by Yoga Classes and Encounter Groups. Religious Leaders were soon quoting philosophy, instead of the Biblem in their Sunday Morning Sermons.

And, instead of taking a stand against those things of the world which were directly opposed to what is found in God’s Word, these “new, enlightened” churches started standing up for the “right” of a woman to have her baby prematurely yanked out of her womb with a set of tongs, standing up for the right of Adam to “marry” Steve, when the Bible states that marriage is between a man and a woman, and standing up for the equality of all faiths, when the Son of God firmly states, in John 14:6, that

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So, is Christianity in America going to “fade away”?

Not any time soon.

Being filled with human beings, churches have made a lot of mistakes, However, they have also done a lot of good in the name of the Lord.

For example, the church I attend, houses a Food Pantry, operated in co-operation with other churches in our area, which feeds 2,000 people per month, counseling them, and getting them the assistance that they need.

Churches today have to walk a fine line.

The spiritual battle the influence of American Popular Culture and those seeking the Will of God in their lives, takes all the strength…and prayer, that Christians can muster.

Articles, such as the one which I quoted earlier, are usually written by Liberals, especially those found in a Liberal Publication like USA Today.

Modern Liberals seem to have great difficulty comprehending the role which Our Creator, the God of Abraham, played and plays in this Grand Experiment, known as the United States of America.

Why have Liberals ratcheted up their anti-Christian Vitriol and Negativity since January 21, 2009?

Why are they so focused on removing America’s Christian Heritage?

Well, as is usually my wont, I have been doing some “reckoning” about this.

It seems to this ol’ Southern Boy, living here in the Heartland, that America’s Christian Heritage and the very real fact of His influence in building and shaping America’s growth into the greatest country on the face of God’s Green Earth, not only stifles and interferes with Modern Liberals’ “anything goes”, “share the wealth”, “hive-mind”, “man is his own god” Political Ideology, but the reality of God’s very existence, somewhere deep in their miserable, bitter psyches, scares the mess out of them.

Why else would they be trying so hard to fight against the influence of Someone Whom they really don’t believe in?

I see them every single day on the television, on the Internet, on Facebook Political Pages, posting stupid meme (a picture with words on it) after stupid meme, attempting to make fun of The Great I Am and those of us who have given our lives to Him.

They are so hateful, and filled with such bitterness, that it is difficult to engage them in “conversation”.

Perhaps, somewhere in their back of their minds, all of these Modern American Liberals, realize that they are fighting a losing battle.

As I mentioned before, 74% of Americans, per that same source, gallup.com, continue to self-identify as Christians.

America was built upon a Solid Rock.

To ignore our nation’s Faith-Based Founding and Heritage is to live in purposeful ignorance.

As President Ronald Reagan said,

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

And, as Hebrews 13:8 tells us,

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Regardless of the Political Machinations of Modern American Liberals, God will have the final word.

He always does.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

Flag Day 2015: Dealing With an Intolerant, Disrespectful, and Egocentric Generation

On By kingsjesterIn Uncategorized2 Comments

911firefightersMiley Cyrus was in the news this week, once again, seeking attention through outrageous behavior, like reminiscent of an immature person trolling Political Facebook Pages.

Cyrus rose to fame on The Disney Channel as a fresh-faced, innocent pre-teen named Hanna Montana.

The show, which co-starred her dad, singer/songwriter Billy Ray Cyrus of “Achy Breaky Heart” fame, was a mega-hit among our nation’s youth. The plot concerned a ordinary girl named Miley (what a stretch, huh?) who donned a wig to become pop music sensation, Hanna Montana. The series followed all the goofy adventures which she, her brother, and her best friend, constantly found themselves getting into.

Fox News reported last week that

In Miley Cyrus’ super revealing Paper magazine cover story, the actress, who appears nude inside the mag, says she is the least judgmental person ever, yet she has some harsh words for Christian fundamentalists and her parents.

The magazine’s story on Cyrus notes that though she was raised Christian, the singer “maintains a particular contempt for fundamentalist lawmakers who rally against this sort of progressive, potentially life-saving changes [for the LGBT] community.”

The pop star told the mag, “Those people [shouldn’t] get to make our laws.”

The article touches on what Cyrus thinks of people who believe Noah’s Ark was a real vessel, “That’s f–king insane,” she told the magazine. “We’ve outgrown that fairy tale, like we’ve outgrown f–king Santa and the tooth fairy.”

She praises her parents throughout the interview, yet Cyrus slams their politics calling them “conservative-ass mother–kers.”

Last Year, she became the topic of Water Cooler Conversation across the nation for appearing on a national music awards program in a skin-tight “nude” outfit. performing a simulated sex act with 36 year old, Robin Thicke, who was married with a 3 year old child, We later found out that it was supposed to be a “dance” called “twerking”.

Think about this: a young fresh-faced, pre-teen girl, who was once marketed as the role model for young teens, with her likeness on clothes, lunch boxes, notebooks, and backpacks, in the center aisle in Walmarts around the world, has become a 20 year old, with her rear up in the air, on all fours, like she was a canine in heat, on a live television program, seen around the world,

The shock value, and outrageousness of her “performance” made her the talk of the nation and got her the attention that she craved.

Back in 2007, Radio Talk Show Host Glenn Beck, in his television show on Headline News, interviewed Billy Ray Cyrus about his daughter’s enormous popularity…and about their relationship.

“Are you at all concerned?” Beck asked the young star’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, at the time. “I mean, the odds of Miley turning into Ron Howard — meaning sane — pretty low. Living in Los Angeles, being a child star — hello? Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, name a million others…”

Cyrus was confident that his daughter had a “great head on her shoulders” and a “great heart.” He also explained that he tries to be her “best friend,” while letting his wife act as the disciplinarian.

“I taught them how to build a good snowman, how to ride a motorcycle, how to ride a horse, how to roast a wiener properly over a fire, and a good marshmallow,” Cyrus explained. “…But discipline I always left up to the mama. She was really, really good at that. That never was — I never was really good at that.”

“This is driving me crazy…What is that from you then?” Beck interrupted. “…I don’t mean to be crass here — are you a cowardly guy?”

Looking back to that interview, after witnessing what Miley has turned into, I do believe the majority opinion is “yes”.

Billy Ray often has referred to the style of parenting which he used with Miley as laissez faire parenting.

I would just call it lazy.

Billy Ray’s, and his estranged wife’s lack of parental guidance has produced a train wreck of a young woman, along the lines of a Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan.

So, Miley…once again, you’ve gotten your wish. You are the talk of America. However, folks are not talking about you in the same manner as they used to, when you were that angelic-looking child with the beautiful voice, winning smile, and perky personality.

Now, what Americans are trying to figure out, Miley, is how you’ve degenerated into what you have become: a young woman with loose morals, rubbing her rear against an older man, while appearing in a nude-colored two piece underwear-looking outfit, in front of God and everybody.

And, now, appearing naked with a pig.

Frankly, I’m embarrassed for the pig.

But, I digress…

So, anyway, here you are…telling all of us normal Americans, living out here in the Heartland, how stupid and intolerant we are, for actually holding to Traditional American Values.

I have heard this garbage before.

This being Flag Day, please allow me to relate the following story…

Back in 2011, I got into a discussion on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website with some cheeto-munching, Mom’s basement-dwelling Lib with no home training, who proceeded to tell me that he would be proud to defecate on the American Flag.

If I could have reached through my computer monitor and throttled that useless, ungrateful spoiled brat, I would have.

That “dude” was yet another example of the useful idiots of this present generation, such as Miley, that seem to be garnering a lot of national attention for their outrageous, disrespectful…and, yes, intolerant, behavior.

Just as we have been bearing witness for the last year, through the glorification of thugs and the vilifying of our local police departments by the Obama Administration and the local “communities” which they lay their lives on the line for, every day they put on their uniforms, the effects of LBJ’s “Great Society” on American Culture and the Black Family Unit, so are we witnessing, through the egocentric behavior of this present generation, what happens when children are left to “their own devices”, instead of being raised “in the way in which they should go”.

On this special day, in which we honor the symbol of our country, a symbol which has been defended and fought for, by the self-sacrifice of generations before us, it is time for Americans to take stock of what is happening around us.

What we seem to be heading for is not simply an immoral society, but, an amoral one, whose concept of right and wrong is “Whatever Gets You Through the Night (It’s Alright. It’s Alright.)”, and whose ultimate authority is not the God of Abraham, but a Godless Central Government, whose credo is

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. (Karl Marx)

Just as Marxism has failed wherever it has been tried before, so will it fail here.

Just as amorality and licentiousness led to the destruction of the Roman Empire, so, if unchecked, will it lead to America’s.

The galling thing is the fact that, even though American Christians remain 74% of the population, we are propagandized and suppressed in both the Old and New Media, to make it seem as if WE are the Minority, when, in fact, WE are the overwhelming Majority.

It is this New Generation of Amoral Socialists, who are in fact, just a tiny, albeit vocal, Minority of America’s population.

And, it is their intolerance, in the name of self-centered “diversity”, which reveals their true heart…every time.

So, what can an average Christian American, like you and me, do about this “Tyranny of the Minority”?

As the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians, we can STAND.

However, you cannot stand without “the full armor of God”.

I have found, as have my family and friends, that the better that you are doing, in terms of your Christian Walk, the harder that you will be attacked.

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.…- Ephesians 6:10-12

By now. you’re probably asking, “So what’s the point of all this, KJ?”

We are given free will by our Creator…will to make choices and decisions on the direction of our lives. Being human, we often don’t make the right decisions and being human, those decisions have the potential to lead us down a dark path.

Whether is in reality or strictly in the close quarters of our own consciousness, the path we choose to follow is up to us.

We still live in the greatest country on the face of the earth and we still have a responsibility to one another.

The Light or the Darkness. The choice is up to each and every one of us.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:14 (ESV)

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

KJ’s Sunday Morning Thought: A Selfish Generation

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity2 Comments

American Christianity 2During every generation, there comes a point, where the previous generation becomes frustrated in their attempts to communicate with the current generation.

The era we are living in now is no different.

However, as far as the effect that this failure to communicate may have on the future of America as a strong and vibrant nation, it is definitely more frightening.

The Christian Post reports that

A San Diego State University study published earlier this month has found that millennials appear to be the least religious generation ever recorded. SDSU psychology professor Jean M. Twenge suggested that one main reason for millennials abandoning religion is rising individualism in American culture, which is less prone to showing commitment to institutions.

“These trends are part of a larger cultural context, a context that is often missing in polls about religion,” Twenge said in an article published by Eureka Alert.

“One context is rising individualism in U.S. culture. Individualism puts the self first, which doesn’t always fit well with the commitment to the institution and other people that religion often requires. As Americans become more individualistic, it makes sense that fewer would commit to religion.”

The detailed study, which published its findings in the journal PLOS One, looked at data from 11.2 million respondents from four nationally representative surveys of U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 18 taken between 1966 and 2014.

The study defined millennials as “American adolescents and emerging adults in the 2010s,” and said that they were “significantly less religious than previous generations (Boomers, Generation X) at the same age.”

The analysis, led by researchers Ramya Sastry from SDSU, along with Julie J. Exline and Joshua B. Grubbs from Case Western Reserve University and W. Keith Campbell from the University of Georgia, presented that twice as many 12th graders and college students today never attend religious services.

Additionally, twice as many 12th graders and entering college students in the 2010s give their religious affiliation as “none,” compared to those in the 1960s-’70s.

“Recent birth cohorts report less approval of religious organizations, are less likely to say that religion is important in their lives, report being less spiritual, and spend less time praying or meditating. Thus, declines in religious orientation reach beyond affiliation to religious participation and religiosity, suggesting a movement toward secularism among a growing minority,” the study said.

The findings noted that millennials are the least religious generation of the last six decades, and possibly in the nation’s history.

Earlier in May, a major Pew Study found that Christianity continues declining in the U.S. as a whole, while the religiously unaffiliated keep rising.

Pew said that Christians as a whole fell from 78.4 to 70 percent of the population between 2007 to 2014, while the religiously unaffiliated group rose to 22.8 percent share of the population. The “nones” now outnumber American Catholics, Pew said, who fell to 20.8 percent.

Some Evangelicals, such as Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, commented on the study by saying that the “increasing strangeness” of Christianity is “good news” for the church.

“Christianity isn’t normal anymore. It never should have been. The increasing strangeness of Christianity might be bad news for America, but it’s good news for the church. The major newspapers are telling us today that Christianity is dying, according to this new study, but what is clear from this study is exactly the opposite: while mainline traditions plummet, evangelical churches are remaining remarkably steady,” Moore said in a statement.

He is exactly right.

The church I attend, which happens to be Southern Baptist, is in the process of growing weekly, with Baptisms being witnessed every Sunday morning.

San Diego State psychology professor Jean M. Twenge’s theory is 180 degrees off.

It is not an act of ‘individualism” which is causing these young people to turn away from the “Faith of Our Fathers”.

It is selfishness and an innate conceit, imbued in them by those, whose familial nurturing and raising, with or without exposure to Christianity, could not compete with the Siren Song of American Popular Culture and secular socialization.

While the Scriptures of our Christian Faith tell us that “nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37), America’s Popular Culture, reinforced by the current President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, and his fellow “Progressives”, tells those who have achieved, through the Grace of God,

You didn’t build that.

Popular Culture, under the guise of “making the individual feel better about themselves”, actually constrains individual achievement.

These “millennials”, by believing that they are “their own god”, are limiting themselves.

History has shown us, time and again, what happens to a society, when man starts worshiping himself.

As Proverbs 16:18 tells us

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Right now, you’re probably saying to yourself,

Hold on, KJ, you just said that the individual CAN achieve.

Yes, I did.

Those who have gone before us, such as our Founding Fathers, our military leaders, our civic leaders, and our spiritual and familial leaders, all had one thing in common:

They all possessed a spirit of self-sacrifice.

Not sacrificing their will to achieve for the “good of the State”, but, rather, unselfishly sacrificing their time and talents for the betterment of those around them.

And, that is where the “Progressives” (i.e., Liberals), such as Professor Twenge, get it wrong.

It is not “the State”, nor the community-at-large, that drives, or allows, Individual Americans to succeed.

It is that “still, small voice” that resides within each one of us that has endowed us with our “certain inalienable rights” as Americans, of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”, that gives us the strength and discernment to succeed.

Without God, nothing is possible.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draw Mohammed Contests, Freedom of Speech, and Liberal Hypocrisy

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

 

 

Islam cartoonEvery lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. – A Time for Choosing, An Address by Ronald Reagan on behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater, Rendezvous with Destiny, October 27, 1964

CNN.com reported yesterday that

Protesters at Friday’s “Freedom of Speech” rally outside a Phoenix mosque were met by counterprotesters.The two groups lined both sides of the street in front of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix and yelled at each other, with a line of police officers standing in the middle of the street to keep them separated, CNN affiliate KNXV reported.

Jon Ritzheimer, organizer of the rally, is a former Marine, and he has no middle ground when it comes to Islam.

His T-shirt pretty much says it all: “F— Islam.” Some of the counterprotesters wore shirts that said, “Love Thy Neighbor.”

The Islamic Community Center of Phoenix is the mosque that Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi attended for a time. They’re the men who drove from Arizona to a Dallas suburb to shoot up a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest there. Both were killed by police early this month.

Many Muslims consider demeaning depictions of Mohammed to be blasphemous and banned by Islamic law.

…”This is in response to the recent attack in Texas where 2 armed terrorist(s), with ties to ISIS, attempted Jihad,” the event’s Facebook page said.

Some 600 people said they would attend.

Yesterday morning, while driving to work, as is my habit as an All-American Adult Male, I was channel-jockeying on Sirius XM between the 60s, 70s, 80s, Christian Contemporary, and Southern Gospel music channels, when I landed on the audio simulcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends”.

Since it was Friday, the 70-something year old topless selfie-taker himself (I apologize for the image), Geraldo Rivera (Jerry Rivers) was pontificating concerning how awful the ex-military guy was to hold a “Draw Mohammed” Contest in Phoenix. According to the Finder of Al Capone’s (empty) Vault (look it up, kids),

“We’re” better than that.

Really, O Mustached One?

In 1987, a wannabe “artist and full-time whackjob named Andres Serrano photographed a crucifix in a bottle of his own urine, and titled it “Piss Christ.” It caused a public uproar, first because of the insulting treatment of a the Son of God’s Atonement for OUR Sins, and second, it was revealed Serrano received a $15,000 prize, partly from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment of the Arts.

In 1999,  New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani cut funding to the Brooklyn Museum after it displayed a painting by another whackjob named Chris Ofili. The painting depicted the Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ surrounded by pornographic images and covered in elephant dung. A judge later reinstated the funding.

I spent a great deal of time this morning, using my mysterious powers of Google Fu, in a vain attempt to find any quotes from Geraldo, in which he protested these two blasphemous pieces of cr…err…”works of art”.

There were none.

I wasn’t surprised.

Like the overwhelming majority of Modern American Liberals, ol’ “Jerry Rivers” is very selective in his condemnation of “affronts to religion”.

If you are a Liberal or a Squishy Moderate (but, I repeat myself), who believes that the “Draw Mohammed” Events are an “affront” to Islam and should be prohibited, and yet, you have no problem with “Piss Christ” and “Elephant Dung Mary”, or any of the truly stupid and awful “memes” posted in blogs and on Facebook attacking Christianity, the faith of 74% of Americans…

YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE.

And, you don’t have a cotton-pickin’ clue.

The historic, documented truth is that Islam is a political ideology masquerading as a faith.

These figures are a rough estimate of the death of non-Muslims by the political act of jihad.

Africa
Thomas Sowell [Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture, BasicBooks, 1994, p. 188] estimates that 11 million slaves were shipped across the Atlantic and 14 million were sent to the Islamic nations of North Africa and the Middle East. For every slave captured many others died. Estimates of this collateral damage vary. The renowned missionary David Livingstone estimated that for every slave who reached a plantation, five others were killed in the initial raid or died of illness and privation on the forced march.[Woman’s Presbyterian Board of Missions, David Livingstone, p. 62, 1888] Those who were left behind were the very young, the weak, the sick and the old. These soon died since the main providers had been killed or enslaved. So, for 25 million slaves delivered to the market, we have an estimated death of about 120 million people. Islam ran the wholesale slave trade in Africa.
…120 million Africans

Christians
The number of Christians martyred by Islam is 9 million [David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library, 2001, p. 230, table 4-10] . A rough estimate by Raphael Moore in History of Asia Minor is that another 50 million died in wars by jihad. So counting the million African Christians killed in the 20th century we have:
60 million Christians

Now, I am not saying that every Muslim is on a jihad against “the infidels”.

However…

When Christians become “radicalized”, we want to share the testimony of what God has done for us through His love, with everyone we meet. We get involved in our local church and we become better fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and American Citizens.

When Muslims become “radicalized”, they want to “kill the Infidels” in the name of “Allah the Merciful”.

In the case of the Chechen Muslim brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, their immersion into Radical Islam led them to “kill the infidels” that horrendous day.

In the case of the barbarians of ISIS, it has turned them into doppelgängers of the Nazi Butchers of Dachau.

Islam and Christianity present two very different Deities, who may share some similarities, but who have different identities and ultimately different standards. To pretend they are the same is not only to be clueless of the faith of 74% (per gallup.com) of the citizens of this nation, but, to be ignorant of an integral part of our American Heritage, the legacy of Christian Faith, which our Founding Fathers bequeathed us.

For Liberals to deny that, is disingenuous at best, and just plain out-and-out lying at worst.

The Father of our Country, our First President, George Washington, once delivered the following mighty words to a fledgling nation:

You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.

While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.

The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would… most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion.

Please notice that the words, “ACCEPT CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR OR DIE” were nowhere in this transcript.

If organizations, such as CAIR, have the FREEDOM OF SPEECH to denounce America and hypocritical Liberals, such a Geraldo Rivera, have the right to denounce events such as the “Draw Mohammed” Contests, then don’t those Americans, who believe that Radical Islam, whose adherents have stated over and over again, that they want to kill each and every American, is Evil Incarnate, have the right to denounce this political ideology masquerading as a religion?

For those of you Liberals who still don’t get it, the answer is “YES”.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

The War Against Christianity: Marine Court-Martialed For Displaying a Bible Verse???!!!

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

 

 

 

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What if I told you that a young United States Marine, a Lance Corporal, who just happens to be black, was court-martialed for having a Bible Verse displayed on her computer?

You would probably accuse me of being a couple of fries short of a government-regulated McDonald’s Happy Meal.

Unbelievably, as Bill Murray and his squad shouted at the General, in the movie, “Stripes”,

That’s a FACT, Jack!

The Christian Post reports that

A United States Marine who was convicted at a court-martial of putting a Bible verse declaring “no weapon formed against me shall prosper” on her computer because it was “contrary to good order and discipline,” is now looking to have that decision appealed under the protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Lance Cpl. Monifa Sterling, who was convicted while stationed at Camp Lejune in North Carolina, was prosecuted for displaying a version of Isaiah 54;17 that reads: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.”

 In 2014, Sterling was court-martialed for refusing to obey orders to remove the scripture from her desk, according to Fox News. After representing herself in court, she was found guilty of disrespecting a superior officer, failing to go to an appointed place of duty, and four charges of disobeying the lawful order of a non-commissioned officer. She was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct and was demoted from lance corporal to private.

Liberty Institute and volunteer attorney, Paul Clement, have asked the Court of Appeals for the U.S. Armed Forces to review Sterling’s case. The government found that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act did not apply to Sterling because simply displaying a Bible verse does not constitute religious practice, which Sterling and Liberty Institute argue is untrue.

“If the government can order a Marine not to display a Bible verse, they could try and order her not to get a religious tattoo, or go to church on Sunday. Restricting a Marine’s free exercise of religion is blatantly unconstitutional,” Mike Berry, Liberty Institute director of military affairs and senior counsel, said on Liberty Institute’s blog.

“If a service member has a right to display a secular poster, put an atheist bumper sticker on their car, or get a Star of David tattoo, then Lance Cpl. Sterling has the right to display a small Bible verse on her computer monitor,” Berry added.

The military argued that Sterling’s choice of scripture “could easily [have] been seen as contrary to good order and discipline. Maintaining discipline and morale in the military work center could very well require that the work center remain relatively free of divisive or contentious issues such as personal beliefs, religion, politics, etc.,” court documents obtained by Fox News stated.

Unfortunately, because of the bad conduct discharge, Sterling is reportedly having trouble finding a job. She remains unemployed but hopeful that Liberty Institute and Clement can get the charges reversed; Clement has had great fortune in the court, helping arts and crafts giant Hobby Lobby secure the company’s successful defense of religious freedom in the landmark Hobby Lobby v. Burwell case before the Supreme Court last June.

The Liberty Institute’s lawyers plan to argue that Sterling’s case should have qualified for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act despite the government’s decision.

Rev, Franklin Graham posted the following comment on his Facebook Page, yesterday…

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” This is the Bible verse (Isaiah 54:17) that Marine Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling was court martialed over. Unbelievably, she was criminally prosecuted by the U.S. government for displaying this encouraging Scripture on her computer in her workspace. Give me a break—really? Can our society be at a point where a supervisor can order a young Marine to remove a Bible verse from her computer? Others are able to display secular message…s without any opposition, but Sterling was targeted by her supervisor. Today there’s a tolerance in our culture for everything—except the things of God and His Word. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has been asked to review LCpl Sterling’s case—let’s pray that this kind of targeting and persecution of Christians by our government will be stopped.

This past Monday, I wrote about my Daddy (Southern colloquialism for male parental unit) and my Uncles, and their service in World War II. I have also had friends that served over the years, and one who is still serving in the Air National Guard.

All of these men were/are Patriots. They enlisted out of a duty to God and Country.

“God and Country”. Now, there’s a phrase that you may not hear much anymore.

You see, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, (our Lord and Savior, as Jamie Foxx referred to him) is on a Crusade to remove Christianity and any reference to the God of Abraham and Isaac, from our Armed Forces.

In 2014, the Pentagon was caught teaching soldiers that the Christian Evangelical “American Family Association”, was a “Terrorist” Organization, needless to say, after Americans gave them “H – e – double hockey sticks” about that stupidity, they had to stop that training class.

After that, the Obama Administration, through their operatives at the Pentagon, decided to remove the phrase “So help me God” for the oath that Americans take, when they enlist in the United States Air Force. It is now “optional”.

The Obama Administration’s quest to remove the God of Abraham from America’s Armed Forces is the result of the influence of Mikey Weinstein.

Who is this clown, you ask?(You probably did not use the word “clown”, but I did. And, I’m holding my temper.)

Weinstein is the head of an organization, known as the “Military Religious Freedom Foundation”.

Per discoverthenetworks.org:

Established in 2006, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) describes itself as “a watchdog group” that is “dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled …” The organization’s primary objective is to eradicate the religious bias and “coercion” that it deems prevalent among high-ranking Christian members of the U.S. military. Toward that end, MRFF functions as “a clearinghouse for violations reported by military and civilian personnel,” offering “complete anonymity” to all complainants.

Headed by retired Air Force lawyer Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, MRFF declares: “At a time when the United States is encouraging greater religious freedom in Muslim nations, it is imperative [sic] upon America to show by example that religious pluralism is a viable and preferred option. Any sign of hypocrisy in United States policy … toward the free exercise of religion within the military makes it more difficult to convince others to follow our nation’s chosen path.”

In December 2006, MRFF issued a “Compliance Report on the Pervasive Violations of the United States Constitutional Religious Freedoms of Military Personnel.” “Military and civilian personnel,” says this document, “are subjected to blatant and unlawful displays of religiosity at mandatory formations, religious bias, and illegal proselytizing by their peers and superiors alike.” The report identifies “pervasive violations of United States Constitutional religious freedoms of military personnel” in five major areas:

(a) Blatant displays of religious symbolism on military garb.

(b) Placement of a biblical quotation above the door of the Air and Space Basic Course classroom.

(c) Illegal use of official military e-mail accounts to send e-mails containing religious rhetoric.

(d) Attempts by missionary organizations to train active-duty military personnel to evangelize their subordinates and peers.

(e) Military leadership openly discussing their commitment to bring religion into the military.

Notwithstanding the disclaimer, MRFF states: “[S]erious violations were committed by prominent figures featured on the organization’s ten-minute promotional video. … [S]everal members of military leadership appear in the video, dressed in full uniform openly discussing their personal connection to Jesus and how they make this connection part of the work they do in their professional capacity each day. {They] state that, among other things, with the help of Christian Embassy, they hold bible studies while on duty in the workplace, many times in their offices.”

Ohhhh….how horrible. Why…morality and ethical behavior may break out at any moment!!! 

And, Lord knows, this Administration does not want that to happen.

It is no coincidence that the Marine Corps Motto, Semper Fidelis, is Latin for “Always Faithful”.

Lance Cpl.  (now Private) Sterling remains always faithful.

She did not deserve her mistreatment.

America’s population remains 74% Christian, no matter what the latest politically-driven poll says.

Our Religious freedom is Constitutionally Protected.

It is not subject to the whims of Popular Culture or a Petulant President.

Those who were responsible need to remember one thing:

God always has the last word.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Memorial Day Weekend: America’s Chaplain Corp…”Fighting the Good Fight”

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

 

 

Chaplain CorpAs Memorial Day Weekend 2015 continues on this Sunday Morning, across the world, brave men and women, in service to our country, gather to worship the One Who made them.

They are led by a devoted team of men and women, known as “Chaplains”.

Now, these Men and Women of God are under attack, by the very Administration, who is supposed to be supporting them.

Fox News Insider reported in an article, posed on April 26th, that

Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) recently went to bat for an Army chaplain who he claims was wrongly punished for using religion in counseling services.Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn was issued a Letter of Concern that accused him of advocating for Christianity during a suicide prevention training session at the University of North Georgia last November.

Collins, an Air Force reserve chaplain who served in Iraq and who represents Georgia’s 9th congressional district, joined Anna Kooiman on “Fox and Friends Weekend” to share insight on what he sees as a larger movement against religion in the U.S. military.

Collins asserted that the Army’s refusal to remove the Letter of Concern from Lawhorn’s file is indicative of the military’s efforts to intimidate chaplains into not expressing their faith and doing the job they’re supposed to be doing.

“I think right now what we’re dealing with is people who claim to be tolerant are actually the most intolerant, especially when they have beliefs they truly don’t believe in,” Collins said. “Chaplains are there for everyone, whether they have faith or no faith, and the chaplains need to be able to operate under their own faith background and also operate within the military. And right now they seem to be under attack for doing just that.”

“We’re in an environment where our military needs to always be at the top of readiness, and readiness means not only physical well-being but also mental and spiritual well-being. And so that’s why it is important that chaplains are able to continue their role in the guidelines that have already been set forth,” Collins said.

“What you have now is basically a minority group that says this shouldn’t be part of the military.”

The Tyranny of the Minority, Indeed.

As I have written numerous times, especially during the last two years of the Obama Administration, the Faith of Christian Americans has been relentlessly attacked, with Christians basically being considered an “Enemy of the State”

Eric Metaxas nailed the matter in the following article, posted at ChristianPost.com:

In the first century, Jesus was asked whether the Jewish people, who were under pagan, Roman occupation, should pay taxes to Caesar. The Lord, of course, said we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s. But in 21st century America, Caesar is angling for a better deal—and he’s getting it.

Our old friend Chuck Colson sounded the alarm several years ago when certain political figures on the Left—including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton—began downsizing the First Amendment’s guarantee of our God-given right to freedom of religion into a more manageable “freedom of worship.”

Chuck feared—rightly, it turns out—that opponents of religious liberty were seeking to keep religion within the four walls of our churches, synagogues, and mosques—as if religious belief were no more than a purely private opinion with no practical implications for the real world. In other words, “Feel free to worship, if you like, but keep your religiously informed opinions and actions to yourself.”

It’s a totalitarian impulse, and you can see it in the intensifying efforts to force faith groups to pay for abortions, to shut down Christian businesses that don’t want to participate in so-called “gay weddings,” and so on.

And the totalitarians are getting bolder about it. In Victoria, Australia, doctors are required by law to perform abortions when asked, or refer the patient to a colleague who will. In Canada, meanwhile, the Ontario and Saskatchewan Colleges of Doctors and Surgeons want physicians forced to perform euthanasia—which is now a fundamental national “right”—if no one else is available to do it.

And the totalitarians—being totalitarians—will brook no compromise. According to Canadian bioethicist Udo Schuklenk, “The very idea that we ought to countenance conscientious objection in any profession is objectionable.”

Really? And alas, this totalitarian streak is not confined to the Great White North. Mrs. Clinton, who once said that abortion can be “a sad, even tragic choice,” now asserts that a so-called “right to reproductive health care” trumps religious freedom. “Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will,” she said at a recent meeting of the Women in the World Summit. “And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.” Religious beliefs have to be changed?

Now Caesar seeks to regulate not just our actions, but our thoughts as well!

New York Times columnist and gay-rights advocate Frank Bruni thinks we need to change our religious beliefs about marriage, too—since, he says, interpreting the Bible is filled with subjectivity and uncertainty. Therefore believers shouldn’t take it too literally on matters of sexuality. “So our debate about religious freedom,” Bruni says, “should include a conversation about freeing religions and religious people from prejudices that they needn’t cling to and can indeed jettison, much as they’ve jettisoned other aspects of their faith’s history, rightly bowing to the enlightenments of modernity.”

How nice that Mr. Bruni and other sexual totalitarians stand ready to “free us” from our prejudices. What’s next, re-education camps? If you think I’m exaggerating the totalitarian threat, in the same newspaper, David Brooks writes, “If orthodox Christians are suddenly written out of polite society as modern-day Bull Connors, this would only halt progress, polarize the debate and lead to a bloody war of all against all.”

My Earthly Father, whom I shall write more about, tomorrow, was the greatest, most wonderful man, I have ever known.

It was not just because he served in World War II, nor was it the fact that he brought home to me malted milk balls, warm cashews, or chocolate-covered raisins every Friday Night from the Sears Store where he worked.

He led me to Jesus Christ.

It was not just by his words, or the fact that he made sure that I was in Sunday School, every Sunday Morning. And, it wasn’t just the fact that some of my earliest memories of him revolve around listening to his beautiful Tenor Voice, echo through the kitchen, while he sang “The Old Rugged Cross”, as he made my breakfast.

He raised me, my sister, and my step-sister, in “the way in which we should go”.

By now. you’re probably asking, “So what’s the point of all this, KJ?”

On this Memorial Day Weekend, as we remember the sacrifices made by our Brightest and Best, we need to remember those who stand by their side, in the Field of Battle, armed with the Word of God, and a message of Love, Hope, and Fidelity.

America’s Chaplain Corps are out there making a daily difference in the lives of or brave Fighting Men and Women.

Their “Charge to Keep” transcends the cultural shackles imposed upon them by an Administration bowing at the altar of Political Correctness and Political Expediency.

We are given free will by our Creator…will to make choices and decisions on the direction of our lives. Being human, we often don’t make the right decisions and being human, those decisions have the potential to lead us down a dark path.

Whether is in the heat of combat on foreign shores, in the oppressive reality of our humdrum civilian lives, or strictly in the close quarters of our own consciousness, the path we choose to follow is up to us.

However, others, like the Chaplain Corps, our parents, family, and friends, can make a difference in our journey.

I thank God that through His Grace I was given a Father who made sure that I received loving instruction in The Way in which I should go.

We still live in the greatest country on the face of the earth and we still have a responsibility to one another.

The Light or the Darkness. The choice is up to each and every one of us.

America’s Chaplain Corps remain an integral part of the battle for America’s Soul.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:14 (ESV)

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Kenya Tells Obama to Keep Gay Marriage Lecture to Himself…America Agrees

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamaobliviousOne thing is for sure, America has changed under the **cough** leadership of President Barack Hussein Obama.

And, not for the better.

Obama and his intolerant Liberal Minions are presently, as they have been for a while, engaging in a political movement designed to change the meaning of a word that has meant the same thing for thousands of years. They have been feverishly attempting to equate the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1960s, in which black Americans were murdered, incarcerated, attacked by dogs loosed on them by Southern Democrats, and knocked down and almost drowned by fire hoses, with the fact that homosexuals could not “marry” their own gender, and the majority of citizens in the majority of states did not want them to and voted accordingly.

This “righteous outrage” of the select few, led to Liberal, and in some cases, homosexual activist judges, overturning the results of fairly-held state elections, which had banned gay marriage in the overwhelming majority of American States.

And now, as I write this post, the Supreme Court is considering whether or not to make “Gay Marriage” the law of the land.

The fact that this attempt by Obama, his Administration, and their Liberal Minions to marginalize the 74% of Americans who proclaim Christ as their Personal Savior, while at the same time tearing apart the fabric of our society, has not escaped the notice of the rest of the world.,,not even in the country of Obama’s birth…err…I mean his father’s birth.

Yeah…that’s the ticket.

Both of the following articles are from The Christian Post.

Article #1 –

President Barack Obama has been urged by the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, comprised of 700 pastors, not to “preach” and impose his views in support of same-sex marriage on the Kenyan people when he visits the African country in July.

“We would like to send a strong message to the U.S. president that the homosexuality debate should not become part of his agenda, as it has been his tendency whenever he comes to Africa,” Bishop Mark Kariuki of the Evangelical Alliance, told the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper on Monday.

“[Obama] should respect the faith, culture and people of Kenya when he comes in July,” he added. “He should not put [homosexuality] as one of his main agenda[s] in the country.”

The pastors said in a separate statement that “President Barack Obama is welcome to visit Kenya this summer — but please, leave the preaching to us.”

And Nairobi Cardinal John Njue, who serves as president of the Kenyan Episcopal Conference, said that Obama has “ruined” American society with his support for gay marriage.

“Those people who have already ruined their society … let them not become our teachers to tell us where to go,” Njue said. “I think we need to act according to our own traditions and our faiths.”

Obama’s state visit to Kenya, the country where he traces back part of his heritage, will be his first return trip to the country since he became president, the LA Times noted.

America has shared a strained relationship with Kenya in recent years, stemming from the U.S.
government’s opposition to President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was elected in 2013 despite being charged with crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court.

July’s state visit is aimed at rebuilding that relationship, with Secretary of State John F. Kerry already meeting with Kenyatta earlier in May to discuss counter-terrorism efforts and security cooperation.

Obama has urged the African government to decriminalize homosexuality, and in 2013 said during a speech alongside Senegalese President Macky Sall that gay people should not be discriminated against.

“When it comes to people’s personal views and their religious faith, I think we have to respect the diversity of views that are there,” Obama said at the time.

“But when it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people, I believe that everybody has to be treated equally. I don’t believe in discrimination of any sort,” he added.

The comments prompted Kenyan officials to urge Obama to respect culture and religious beliefs.

“No one should have any worry about Kenya’s stand as a God-fearing nation. President Obama is a powerful man but we trust in God as it is written in the Bible that cursed is the man who puts trust in another man,” Kenya Deputy President William Ruto said back then.

Kenya, a majority Christian country, does not allow gay marriage and criminalizes same-sex acts, as is the case in a number of other African states.

The Inter-Religious Council of Kenya has also said that it is wary of Obama’s upcoming visit.

“We are not prepared to accept, hear or listen to anyone lecturing us on how our culture is good or bad,” said IRCK Chairman Adan Wachu.

And, continuing with this subject, under the heading of “Not Trusting Man”…

Article #2-

A United Methodist body approved proposed legislation that would, among other things, allow clergy to perform gay marriage ceremonies and local conferences to ordain non-celibate homosexuals.

The Connectional Table voted 26 to 10 in favor of proposed legislation that would allow clergy to perform gay weddings without concern of facing church discipline or to be “openly self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”

The Christian Post reached out to the Connectional Table, but due to scheduled meetings a representative could not return comment by press time.

John Lomperis, director of the United Methodist program at The Institute on Religion and Democracy, told The Christian Post that the Connectional Table proposal was a bad idea.

“This legislation would essentially replace the UMC’s current biblical policies on marriage and sexuality with the same sort of liberalized policies of denominations like the Episcopal Church, with similarly disastrous results,” said Lomperis.

“Thus, with this move, the Connectional Table has further committed itself to an agenda that would split apart our denominational connectional. But the majority of members have made clear that they simply care about ‘winning’ at any cost, no matter whose voices they exclude from the table …”

According to the UMC’s governing document the Book of Discipline, homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

The Discipline also says that clergy can neither bless gay weddings nor can non-celibate homosexuals be ordained.

At the UMC’s most recent general conference, held in 2012 in Tampa, Florida, a resolution introduced to change the Discipline’s language on these positions was voted down. But the controversy over the Mainline Protestant denomination’s position on homosexuality continued.

Last month, the UMC Commission on General Conference, which plans the general conference meetings, proposed a way to specifically handle proposed legislation, like that which was voted on in 2012.

Called a “Group Discernment Process,” if approved, the new method will involve sexual ethics petitions going through small group review before entering the usual committees.

Regarding the possible success of the Connectional Table proposal, Lomperis of the IRD told CP that “I do not at all expect this to pass General Conference.”

“People who expect General Conference to pass this either don’t understand our system well or else simply don’t get out much from their left-wing echo chambers,” said Lomperis.

Christian Americans have been under constant attack since January 21, 2009, by Liberals, or “Progressives” (a misnomer) from both within and without the American Christian Church.

Liberal Denominations, such as the Presbyterian and the Episcopalianm Churches have seen their congregations shrink dramatically, teetering on extinction, as a result of following the current Popular Culture of Man, instead of the Eternal Word of God.

Now, the United Methodist Church, where I spent the first 40 years of my life, serving on my home church’s Council of Ministries as Choir President, is starting to strain at its edges, as the “Smartest People in the Room” are attempting to place man’s culture above God.

As these Liberal Denominations are finding out the hard way, that never works out.

God always has the last word.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

Pope Francis: The Pope of the Far Left

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

th (7)The current Leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has chosen a very different path than any of his predecessors.

And, from this Christian American’s Viewpoint, that is not necessarily a good thing.

Yahoo News Canada reports that

Pope Francis’ hard-hitting criticisms of globalization and inequality long ago set him out as a leader unafraid of mixing theology and politics. He is now flexing the Vatican’s diplomatic muscles as well.

Last year, he helped to broker an historic accord between Cuba and the United States after half a century of hostility.

This past week, his office announced the first formal accord between the Vatican and the State of Palestine — a treaty that gives legal weight to the Holy See’s longstanding recognition of de-facto Palestinian statehood despite clear Israeli annoyance.

The pope ruffled even more feathers in Turkey last month by referring to the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the early 20th century as a “genocide”, something Ankara denies.

After the inward-looking pontificate of his scholarly predecessor, Pope Benedict, Francis has in some ways returned to the active Vatican diplomacy practiced by the globetrotting Pope John Paul II, widely credited for helping to end the Cold War.

Much of his effort has concentrated on improving relations between different faiths and protecting the embattled Middle East Christians, a clear priority for the Catholic Church.

However in an increasingly fractured geopolitical world, his diplomacy is less obviously aligned to one side in a global standoff between competing blocs than that of John Paul’s 27-year-long papacy.

This is reinforced by his status as the world’s first pope from Latin America, a region whose turbulent history, widespread poverty and love-hate relationship with the United States has given him an entirely different political grounding from any of his European predecessors.

“Under this pope, the Vatican’s foreign policy looks South,” said Massimo Franco, a prominent Italian political commentator and author of several books on the Vatican.

He said the pope has been careful to avoid taking sides on issues like Ukraine, where he has never defined Russia as an aggressor, but has always referred to the conflict between the government and Moscow-backed rebels as a civil war.

That approach is intended to ensure he remains more credible with countries like Syria, Russia or Cuba, all nations where Francis feels he can help local Christians best by steering an independent course.

DIPLOMATIC RISKS

Francis already has his hands full overhauling the Vatican’s complex internal bureaucracy after a series of financial and sexual scandals involving abuse of children by priests which date back decades.

But clearly deeply interested in how the world outside the walls of the Vatican works, he appears determined to use his position and the huge global audience he commands to challenge entrenched diplomatic positions as well.

The former secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a veteran insider whose office formerly controlled both relations with foreign powers and many internal Vatican affairs, has been replaced. His office has been downgraded to resemble a more classical diplomatic service while Francis has set a bolder, more personal stamp on Vatican foreign policy.

“He’s someone who’s capable of praying in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and then talking about the Armenian genocide. He’s not someone who’s bound by political correctness,” said former Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

“It’s the diplomacy of a real leader.”

Whether it is to the taste of all the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, world politicians with priorities of their own or even the many layers of the Church’s own administration is another matter.

With many conservative Catholics unhappy about the pope’s focus on issues like economic injustice and his relatively tolerant tone on sensitive social topics like homosexuality and the status of divorced people, pronounced views on delicate diplomatic issues could cause further division in the Church.

It is a point where he will be particularly tested in September on his upcoming visit to the United States, where some conservative U.S. Catholics are openly hostile.

After helping to foster last year’s agreement reviving diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, Francis reaped criticism from many U.S. conservatives, including Marco Rubio, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants and a practicing Catholic, avoided directly admonishing the pope, but said he should “take up the cause of freedom and democracy” in Cuba.

That kind of veiled criticism from a politician who would normally be considered a staunch Church ally reflects the wider unease some Catholics feel at the change Francis has ushered in at one of the world’s most conservative institutions.

“Bishops complain that he becomes popular by attacking the Church,” said Franco.

“He speaks directly to the people and doesn’t respect the usual command structures. He decides on his own or with people who are not those who previously had a central role.”

In other words, he is the first pope who seemingly represents the Far Left Political Viewpoint.

Pope Francis seems more comfortable reaching out to Communist and Socialist countries, then he does to the Vatican’s Traditional allies, those countries who enjoy strong economies, built upon freedom and a competitive marketplace.

I know that I may sound like an old cracker, but my generation was blessed with three very remarkable leaders: United States President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II.

These three stood for everything that was good about freedom.

All three knew the dangers and corruption of the implementation of Marxist Theory through the governments of man.

Here is what the wonderful and gracious Pope John Paul II said about an out-of-control Nanny-State (Socialist) Government:

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending, In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them who act as neighbors to those in need. It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need.

And, while this present Pontiff is romancing the Palestinians, Pope John Paul II reached out to God’s Chosen People.

In 1994, John Paul II established full diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Israel. He said,

For the Jewish people who live in the State of Israel and who preserve in that land such precious testimonies to their history and their faith, we must ask for the desired security and the due tranquillity that are the prerogative of every nation . . .

Pope John Paul II also said…

The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.

Why is this present Pope supporting the enemies of Freedom…and of God’s Chosen People?

Being a peacemaker is one thing. Being an enabler of the Enemies of Freedom is quite another.

 Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Will Christians Face Prison For Being “Intolerant”?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

WashingtonPrayingCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. – The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Is the Religious Freedom of the 74% of Americans (per gallup.com)., who proclaim Jesus Christ as our Personal Savior doomed to be sacrificed on the altar of Politically-motivated “Tolerance”?

The Christian Post reports that

Religious freedom champion and former Congressman Frank Wolf warned a Harvard audience that freedom of conscience is endangered in the United States and conservative Christians may have to engage in civil disobedience because their views are considered intolerant.

“When tolerance is demanded, when orthodox Christianity is deemed intolerant and when government and even society fails to extend tolerance to people of faith, we are headed down a perilous path,” he said.

His main point was that freedom of conscience has long been understood as important for religious freedom, but recently there has been a trend of violating the conscience protections of conservative Christians, particularly over the issues of abortion and marriage.

Citing a resolution passed by the Continental Congress to protect the conscience rights of pacifists, Wolf argued, “our conscience is not ultimately allegiant to the state, but to something, and for many people, Someone, higher.” And this is important “because if our conscience belongs to the state, the state can choose to violate it or compromise it at will.”

Recently, however, there has been a “subtle but insidious trend” in which the government is expanding into areas that are more likely to infringe upon conscience rights. This trend was “at the heart” of the recent Supreme Court case involving Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned craft supply chain, and the Obama administration’s birth control mandate. While the owners of Hobby Lobby, the Green family, are pro-life, the Obama administration sought to require them to pay for health insurance coverage for contraceptive pills that could cause an abortion.

Citing a Yuval Levin article, Wolf argued “we are witnessing the imposition of a new state religion” called “progressive liberalism.”

Wolf also pointed to opposition to Religious Freedom Restoration Acts as part of the trend.

In particular, he pointed out the inconsistency of corporation leaders, such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, who opposed RFRA, a law to protect conscience rights, while exercising their own conscience rights. Apple removed from its products an app by the pro-life and pro-marriage group The Manhattan Declaration. Plus, Cook opposed Indiana’s RFRA over supposed “fairness” toward gays while doing business with Arab countries where homosexuality is illegal, and China, a nation that “has one of the worst overall human rights records.”

“Freedom of conscience is good for all,” he said. “If Apple and other companies want to protect their own rights, they ought also to protect those of others. If they wish to run their companies according to their conviction, they ought not deny other companies the same right.”

Wolf’s third example of religious conscience infringement was the trend of Christian groups on college campuses being forced to choose between leaving or remaining faithful to their beliefs.

“These legal realities and emerging policy norms, coupled with fears of compromised livelihoods and tarnished reputations, risk driving people of faith out of the public square,” he said.

Wolf hopes, though, that in the face of these religious freedom infringements, Christians will not “retreat form the public square” but “boldly stay, regardless of the cost.” He then recalled the “rich Christian tradition of civil disobedience in the face of unjust laws” exemplified by Dr. Martin Luther King.

After recalling the many biblical figures who were jailed for remaining faithful to God, and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was imprisoned and put to death for opposing Hitler, Wolf asked, “Is prison the fate of people today who dare to stand up for what their conscience, informed by their faith, dictates?”

Wolf ended by quoting the Manhattan Declaration’s implied promise of civil disobedience in the face of religious conscience violations: “Iwill fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will I render to Caesar what is God’s.”

Wolf is currently Distinguished Senior Fellow at the21st Century Wilberforce Initiative and Wilson Chair of Religious Freedom at Baylor University, a religious freedom advocacy organization he joined after retiring from Congress.

While in Congress, Wolf was one of the most outspoken defenders of global religious freedom. He authored the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the post of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom within the State Department. The act also allowed for sanctions to be placed on nations that infringe upon its citizens’ religious freedom.

Recently, I have been involved in numerous “discussions” on Political Facebook Pages, concerning this issue.

Due to my adherence to my Traditional Christian American Faith, I have recently been called everything BUT a “Child of God”, by those whose “personal belief system” leads them to bow at the Progressive-built altar of Politically-correct Intolerance.

They argue that Christian American Small Business Owners have no right to practice their faith in their businesses and that Christian American Conservatives, as a whole, MUST accept homosexual “marriage” or we are not Christians at all.

Wrong. To state it bluntly, as Dr. Michael Brown did recently, in an article for The Christian Post:

…every law dealing with marriage and family, every positive example and precept, every illustration in the Bible about sexuality morality is based on heterosexual relationships (see, for example, Genesis 2:24; Exodus 20:12; Matthew 19:4-6; Ephesians 5:22-33).

That’s why there was not a need to condemn homosexual practice on every page. Everything in Scripture was against it. (To be perfectly clear, the Bible plainly teaches that God loves every human being, that all of us are fallen and in need of redemption, and that Jesus died for heterosexual and homosexual alike. The issue here is the meaning of marriage and the standard of sexual morality.)

Our Christianity as Americans does not and can not end at Noon on Sunday, as we shake the Preacher’s hand and walk out of the sanctuary.

As every Christian knows, the Triune God dwells within each of us, in the form of that “still, small voice”, the Holy Spirit.

Christians have to make a choice in these tough times.

The choice we each have to make is whether to “give to Caesar” that which is not his, our Christian Faith, or to listen to that “still, small voice” and love the homosexual enough to lead them to forgiveness of their sins and salvation through the Grace of Jesus Christ.

This is not a “Political Crisis” which we as Christian Americas are facing right now.

It is a battle of “Princes and Principalities”.

And, I stand with the King of Kings.

Y’see, I have read the back of The Book.

The Good Guys win.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Baylor Religious Survey: American Christianity is Alive and Well. Pew Poll Misinterpreted.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

 

 

th1DXO5NI3It appears that the “Death of American Christianity”, so widely trumpeted by the Main Stream Media and Internet Liberals this past week, was greatly exaggerated.

The Christian Post reports that

Contrary to recent reports based on studies that emphasize the growth of non-religious people in the United States and the decline of church attendance, Christianity in America is not dying, according to a new survey that examines the nuances and complexities of how people self-identify with faith by Waco,Texas-based Baylor University.

Scholars from Baylor University’s Institute of Religion said during a recent conference that reports highlighting the departure of millenials from the organized religion of their parents are being greatly exaggerated.

“There’s a story some people want to report — that religion is on life support — but it’s just not true,” said Byron Johnson, professor of the social sciences at Baylor and founding director of the Institute for Studies of Religion.

Johnson explains in The Baylor Religion Survey that surveys reporting a massive exodus of millenials from religion are misinterpreting the data. Many of these young adults have only stopped attending church for a few years or identify with a non-denominational church rather than a mainline denomination and have not abandoned Christianity. [Emphasis mine]

While mainline Protestant denominations have declined 49 percent from 1960 to 2000, evangelicals and other religious groups have grown at a faster rate, according to Johnson. Religious “switching,” or people moving from one tradition to another is not being considered by many researchers and reporters.

The Baylor Religion Survey explores the nuances and complexities of how people self-identify with faith and asks follow-up questions of people who indicated “no religion.” Many of these same people identified with specific congregations.

When they do list a church, it’s often high-octane religion such as non-denominational evangelical congregations,” said Johnson.

A recent Pew Survey, pointed to the decline of the Christian population in the U.S. The drop in the number of Christians was most evident among young adults.

The data, which examined religious affiliation from 2007 to 2014 showed that the shrinking population of Christians in the U.S. was due to the decline of Catholics and mainline Protestants. The number of people identifying as Evangelicals saw a very small decrease during those years dropping from 26.3 percent to 25.4 percent.

The unaffiliated category saw an increase from 12.1 to 15.8 percent and atheism grew from 1.6 percent in 2007 to 3.1 percent in 2014.

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, recently addressed the Pew study and said the perceived increase of “nones” and decrease of Christians is “good news” for the church.

“Christianity isn’t normal anymore. It never should have been. The increasing strangeness of Christianity might be bad news for America, but it’s good news for the church,” said Moore. “The major newspapers are telling us today that Christianity is dying, according to this new study, but what is clear from this study is exactly the opposite: while mainline traditions plummet, evangelical churches are remaining remarkably steady.”

Moore also stated that the rise of honest atheists in America that can be seen in the Pew Study shows that people are rejecting “almost-Christianity,” or traditions that “jettison the historic teachings of the church as soon as they become unfashionable.”

“The churches that are thriving are vibrant, countercultural congregations that aren’t afraid to not be seen as normal to the surrounding culture,” he said. “This report actually leaves me hopeful.”

As a Southern Baptist, I can testify to the fact that the church I attend is growing. We are reaching out to the community around us, through events such as the Easter Egg Hunt, which my bride and I “worked” at, and hosting diaper changing booths at Community Fairs.

Additionally, we, along with other churches in our community, sponsor a charity organization, sharing the same name as our church, which feeds 2,000 of our neighbors every month.

So, why were Liberals cheering the “demise” of American Christianity when the Pew Survey came out earlier this week?

Modern American Liberals have proven that they cannot stand Christian Americans. It is evident from their condescension toward us and derision of our traditional values and ethics in their propaganda.

They literally cannot stand the fact that our Constitution grants us Religious Freedom in its very First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Please note that this amendment does not say “in some circumstances”.

I have said time and time again, that I find it funny that those among us who claim to be the most tolerant are actually the least tolerant of all.

However, their continued attack on our faith as Christian Americans, is not funny at all.

Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler ‘ s Minister of Propaganda, once said that

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

The current lie that Obama and his sycophants  are telling the American Public is that, somehow, the less than 24% of Americans who feel the same way as the Progressives in the Far Left do, somehow outnumber the 74% of Americans who proclaim Jesus Christ as our Personal Savior.

And, that overestimation, as this recent survey by the University of Baylor showed, just doesn’t add up.

Not even in Common Core.

Americans, now more than ever, have a choice to make.

We are given free will by our Creator…will to make choices and decisions on the direction of our lives. Being human, we often don’t make the right decisions and being human, those decisions have the potential to lead us down a dark path.

Whether is in reality or strictly in the close quarters of our own consciousness, the path we choose to follow is up to us.

However, our parents, family, and friends can make a difference in our journey and I thank God that through His Grace I was given a Father who made sure that I received loving instruction in The Way in which I should go.

We still live in the greatest country on the face of the earth and we still have a responsibility to one another.

The Light or the Darkness. The choice is up to each and every one of us.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:14 (ESV)

Until He Comes,

KJ