Tag: Christianity

What percentage of Americans identify themselves as Christians?

The War Against Christianity: The Slaughter of the Coptic Christians

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics21 Comments

copticchristiansThe struggle for the control of Egypt rages on this morning.

Fox News Reports that

More than 800 people have been killed nationwide since Wednesday’s dismantling of two encampments of Morsi supporters in Cairo — an act that sparked fierce clashes.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian government has begun deliberations on whether to ban the Brotherhood, a long-outlawed organization that swept to power in the country’s first democratic elections a year ago.

Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt’s military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi’s reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide.

One of the world’s oldest Christian communities has generally kept a low profile, but has become more politically active since Mubarak was ousted and Christians sought to ensure fair treatment in the aftermath.

Many Morsi supporters say Christians played a disproportionately large role in the days of mass rallies, with millions demanding that he step down ahead of the coup.

Despite the violence, Egypt’s Coptic Christian church renewed its commitment to the new political order Friday, saying in a statement that it stood by the army and the police in their fight against “the armed violent groups and black terrorism.”

While the Christians of Egypt have endured attacks by extremists, they have drawn closer to moderate Muslims in some places, in a rare show of solidarity.

Hundreds from both communities thronged two monasteries in the province of Bani Suef south of Cairo to thwart what they had expected to be imminent attacks on Saturday, local activist Girgis Waheeb said. Activists reported similar examples elsewhere in regions south of Cairo, but not enough to provide effective protection of churches and monasteries.

Waheeb, other activists and victims of the latest wave of attacks blame the police as much as hard-line Islamists for what happened. The attacks, they said, coincided with assaults on police stations in provinces like Bani Suef and Minya, leaving most police pinned down to defend their stations or reinforcing others rather than rushing to the rescue of Christians under attack.

Who are the Coptic Christians? How did they come to dwell in the Land of the Pharoahs?

Coptic Christianity began in Egypt sometime around5 A.D. It is one of the five oldest Christian churches in the world, joing the Roman Catholic Church, Church of Athens (Eastern Orthodox Church), Church of Jerusalem, and Church of Antioch in its longevity.

The Coptic Christians (Copts) trace their lineage back to John Mark, one of the 72 apostles sent forth by Jesus Christ and author of the Gospel of Mark. Mark traveled with Paul and Mark’s cousin Barnabas on their first missionary journey but left them and returned to Jerusalem. Later, he also preached with Paul in Colosse and Rome. Mark ordained one bishop (Anianus) in Egypt and seven deacons, founded the school of Alexandria, and served God, until he was martyred in Egypt in 68 A.D.

Coptic tradition holds that Mark was tied to a horse with a rope and dragged to death by a mob of pagans on Easter, 68 A.D., in Alexandria. Coptic Christians refer to John Mark as the first of their chain of 118 patriarchs or “popes”.

John Mark began a school in Alexandria to teach orthodox Christianity. By 180 A.D., this school had grown to become both am established thological and spirital center of learning and, a center for secular learing, as well. It remained as the cornerstone of Coptic teaching for four centuries. One of its leaders was Athanasius, who created the Athanasian Creed, still recited in Christian churches today.

Abba Pacomius (292-346) is credited as founding the first cenobitic, or community monastery at Tabennesi in Egypt. He also wrote a set of rules for monks. By his death there were nine monasteries for men and two for women.

The Roman empire persecuted the Coptic Church during the third and fourth centuries. Around 302 A.D., Emperor Diocletian martyred 800,000 men, women and children in Egypt who followed Jesus Christ.

And, now, the barbarians of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization supported by AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS, through the patronage of United States President Barack Hussein Obama, has picked up where the Roman Empire left off, destroying beautiful centuries-old churches, while slaughtering and maiming followers of Jesus Christ.

Back on September 14, 2012, Breitbart.com’s Big Government’s Scott Katz, posted the following…

In his now-infamous apology speech in Cairo on June 4th, 2009, the President said the following as part of his prepared remarks to the Muslim world.

I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

Included live and in person in the crowd that day, as “insisted” by the Obama Administration, were at least 10 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, known worldwide for their principles of justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.

The President continued; “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries… and throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

The President must have missed a few history classes, as the Brotherhood was no stranger to anyone paying attention to international terrorist organizations for the past 50 years. Religious tolerance and racial equality were not part of their platform.

Founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood had links to the Nazis during the Second World War, involving agitation against the British, espionage and sabotage, as well as support for terrorist activities.

The Brotherhood disseminated Hitler’s Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion throughout the Arab world, helping to deepen and extend hostile views about Jews and Western societies in general, and they have continued their campaign of terrorism ever since.

In February of 2011, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller told the House Select Committee on Intelligence of the litany of terrorism both here and abroad supported by the Muslim Brotherhood. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper ad other witnesses spelled out a variety of threats, highlighting the Brotherhood’s ties in the United States.

The President continued, “Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims.”

Perhaps this explains the President’s naïve worldview, where our foreign policy means taking every Arab country out for an ice cream cone rather than sending enough Marines to protect duty-bound Americans and our interests abroad.

I have to disagree with Mr. Katz. Obama’s not naive. He is a servant of radical Islam. He is a dhimmi.

Last Thursday, Obama, in prepared remarks about the situation in Egypt, said,

The United States strongly condemns the steps that have been taken by Egypt’s interim government and security forces. We deplore violence against civilians. We support universal rights essential to human dignity, including the right to peaceful protest. We oppose the pursuit of martial law, which denies those rights to citizens under the principle that security trumps individual freedom, or that might makes right. And today the United States extends its condolences to the families of those who were killed and those who were wounded.

And given the depths of our partnership with Egypt, our national security interests in this pivotal part of the world and our belief that engagement can support a transition back to a democratically elected civilian government, we’ve sustained our commitment to Egypt and its people. But while we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back.

As a result, this morning we notified the Egyptian government that we are canceling our biannual joint military exercise which was scheduled for next month. Going forward I’ve asked my national security team to assess the implications of the actions taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as necessary with respect to the U.S.-Egyptian relationship.

Let me say that the Egyptian people deserve better than what we’ve seen over the last several days. And to the Egyptian people, let me say the cycle of violence and escalation needs to stop. We call on the Egyptian authorities to respect the universal rights of the people. We call on those who are protesting to do so peacefully and condemn the attacks that we’ve seen by protesters, including on churches. We believe that the state of emergency should be lifted, that a process of national reconciliation should begin, that all parties need to have a voice in Egypt’s future, that the rights of women and religious minorities should be respected, and that commitments must be kept to pursue transparent reforms of the constitution and democratic elections of a parliament and a President.

Nowhere did he mention the Muslim Brotherhood by name, or call on them, specifically, to quit slaughtering Coptic Christians.

Through the Leader of the Free World’s dhimmitude, he is passively allowing the barbarians to continue their rampage.

If you think, as Americans, that Obama thought that the MB would stop, simply because he told them to, then I want to sell you singing lessons taught by Roseanne Barr.

Obama knows exactly what is going on.

Please pray for our Egyptian brothers and sisters in Christ.

Until He Comes,

KJ

A Matter of Faith: The Story of the Angelic Priest

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity5 Comments

angel1Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. – Hebrews 13:2 (ESV)

Did you know that the word “angel” comes from the Greek word aggelos, which means “messenger”? The matching Hebrew word mal’ak has the same meaning.

Sometimes, the Bible uses these words for human beings:

ordinary people who carry messages (Job 1:14; Luke 7:24; 9:52)

prophets (Isaiah 42:19; Malachi 3:1)

priests (Malachi 2:7)

church leaders (Rev 1:20)

Sometimes, the Bible speaks figuratively of things or events as “messengers”…

the pillar of cloud (Exodus 14:19)

pestilence or plagues (2 Samuel 24:16-17)

Usually, though, the word describes the whole range of spirits whom God has created, including both good and evil angels, and special categories such as cherubim, seraphim, and the archangel.

Angels are mentioned at least 108 times in the Old Testament and 165 times in the New Testament.

When human beings see angels, they generally appear in the form of men. In Genesis 18, Abraham welcomed three angelic guests who appeared at first to be nothing more than some travellers. In the following chapter, two angels went to Sodom where they were assumed to be simply a pair of human visitors.

With the possible exception of one passage in Zechariah 5:9, angels always appear as males rather than females (Mark 16:5).

Of course, those of us raised in Christian Homes, have been told of God’s angels all of our lives. Our parents and grandparents have told us that we have a Guardian Angel, assigned by the Lord, to watch over us.

The unchurched among us, learned of Angels through the television series “Touched By an Angel” featuring Della Reese and Roma Downey, who recently produced a series on the Bible for The History Channel.

That televison series about angels started a countrywide fascination with them, leading to all sorts of angel-themed merchandise sales, and what seemed like a nationwide fit of idolatry of them, in which Americans seemed to lose sight of the fact that angels are our servants, assigned to watch over us by their…and our…Master.

A story out of Center, Missouri exploded over all of the Internet yesterday, which has set tongues wagging, as Americans discuss their faith…or lack thereof.

TheBlaze.com has the story…

KHQA-TV is reporting a story that seems virtually unbelievable. After Aaron Smith, 26, struck Katie Lentz, 19, in a head-on car crash on Sunday morning, authorities claim they began a long rescue process. After 60 minutes of trying to get Lentz out of the vehicle (she was pinned between the steering wheel and the seat), rescue crews, at Lentz’s request, prayed out loud for the trapped woman.

And that’s when a mystery priest allegedly appeared. According to accounts, he came out of nowhere and brought intense calm upon the situation.

“He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer,” New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed told KHQA-TV. “It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well.”

Considering how many people were at the scene and interacting with the mystery faith leader, the story is a fascinating one.

“I can’t be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle,” the firefighter added.

Now here’s where things get weird. After another fire department showed up, the rescue proceeded easily and the tools worked, as promised. But when nearly a dozen firefighters turned around to thank the priest, he was gone; the road was empty. Considering that the road was blocked off for a quarter of a mile during the rescue and that no cars were around, the scenario, on the surface, seems a bit bizarre.

Lentz’s friends and family want to thank the priest, but, so far, he’s nowhere to be found.

“Where did this guy come from?” Travis Wiseman said, speaking rhetorically about the faith leader . “We’re looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie.”

Smith has been charged with a DWI, second degree assault and failure to drive on the right side of the road. And the search for the priest forges on.

As I was hanging out at my favorite Conservative website, hotair.com, the inestimable…and atheistiic…AllahPundit, posted the story of the Angelic Priest. It was fascinating to read all the comments of the posters there.

Even though 78% of us Americans proclaim Jesus Christ as our Personal Savior, and 92% of us believe in God, there are still those among us, both believers and non-believers, who have trouble accepting a supernatural event may have occurred Sunday Morning.

I can understand why. The idea of an omnipotent God, filled with love and concern for each one of us, is difficult for our tiny human minds to comprehend at times.

People have a hard time grasping the fact that, as ol’ Billy Shakespeare wrote,

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. – Hamlet (1.5.166-7)

Man has struggled with the reality of God, ever since Adam said to Eve,

I’ll Bite.

And, nowadays, our Christianity is being challenged like never before in this nation, given to us by God, by a dark, libertine culture, where man is his own god, morality is relative and ethics are situational.

Seeking answers, non-believers and those who have wandered away from their American Christian Heritage, turn to whatever they feel will work for them; including, but not limited to, their Horoscope, Buddhism, EST, Self-realization, or substance abuse.

Eventually though, they find that those finite things, cannot fill the gaping hole in their heart. Only the infinite love of the One who became the expiation for their sins can make them complete, and wash them white as snow.

The story of the Angelic Priest causes us all to reflect on our own faith or, as I said before, our lack thereof.

What do you believe? Do you have the faith of a mustard seed?

I firmly believe “Greater is He who is in me, than he who is in the world.”

I don’t know how people, nowadays especially, live without Him.

I also believe, that, Angel or Priest, that ministering messenger was sent by God.

What do you believe?

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: “Zealot”

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

American FreedomAmerica is still a Christian Nation. We comprise 78% of our country’s population. One might not believe that, given the disparagement of Christians by “the smartest people in the room”, i.e., Liberals, including the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

Recently, a new book titled “Zealot” hit the book stands, and its author, Dr. Reza Aslan, started making the rounds, promoting his book. The Liberal Media has been praising his  “ground-breaking work of Literature” and coming to his defense, when his scholarship and motives are questioned.  For example, here is an excerpt from the Washington Post…

Reza Aslan, “an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions,” according to his online biography, has gotten a boost in sales and popularity from his “embarrassing” interview with a Fox News anchor about his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. But those familiar with the Harvard graduate and former Christian’s work say Zealot is re-hashed scholarship that ignores much of what the New Testament actually says about Jesus.

Aslan has written an account of how he “found” Jesus as a teen at an evangelical youth camp but years later returned to Islam after his studies led him to doubt the veracity of the Christian Scriptures, which he says are “replete with the most blatant and obvious errors and contradictions.”

“The more I probed the Bible to arm myself against the doubts of unbelievers, the more distance I discovered between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of history – between Jesus the Christ and Jesus of Nazareth,” Aslan wrote. “In college, where I began my formal study of the history of religions, that initial discomfort soon ballooned into full-blown doubts. …

“And so, like many people in my situation, I angrily discarded my faith as if it were a costly forgery I had been duped into buying.”

…Charged in his Fox New interview that his personal faith journey somehow overshadowed his academic objectivity, Aslan insisted: “Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.”

“It’s not as if I’m just some Muslim writing about Jesus. I am an expert with a Ph.D. in the history of religions,” he added.

While his claims to being a “scholar of religions” and an “expert with a Ph.D. in the history of religions” have been challenged, those familiar with the contents and claims of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth say Aslan has presented nothing new, although his meticulous research is evident.

Among some of the claims in Zealot, a biography in the top five of The New York Times Best Seller list and the leading book in a few Amazon categories, is that: Jesus was a revolutionary and a zealot who advocated the use of violence; as a devout Jew Jesus would have rejected the idea of an incarnate God; Jesus was crucified for sedition against the Roman Empire and not for the world’s sins.

The Fox interview that The Christian Post refers to, was conducted by Fox News’ Faith Editor, Lauren Greene, herself a Christian. Ms. Greene asked the Muslim “religious scholar” the questions that needed to be asked. Now, all of the Liberal Media is aghast that she actually dared to call Aslan out on his inaccurate book, which was, of course, slanted due to his own Mohammedanism.  Here are some excerpts…

Green: My question, yeah, I wanted to ask — actually there’s another chat coming, and I wanted to get this on before we end this interview. [A critic] just says so your book is written with clear bias and you’re trying to say it’s academic. That’s like having a Democrat writing a book about why Reagan wasn’t a good Republican. It just doesn’t work. What do you say to that?

Aslan: It would be like a Democrat with a PhD in Reagan who has been studying his life and history for two decades writing a book about Reagan. Again, I think that it’s unfair.

Green: Why would a Democrat want to promote democracy by writing about a Republican?

Aslan: Ma’am, may I just finish my sentence for a moment, please? I think that the fundamental problem here is that you’re assuming that I have some sort of faith-based bias in this work that I write. I write about Judaism, I write about Hinduism, I write about Christianity, I write about Islam. My job as a scholar of religions with a PhD in the subject is to write about religions and one of the religions and one of the religions I’ve written about is the one that was launched by Jesus.

Green: You’re not just writing about a religion from a point of view of an observer. I mean, the thing about it is that…

Aslan: Why would you say that?

Green: …you’re promoting yourself as a scholar and I’ve interviewed scholars who have written books on the resurrection, on the real Jesus and who are looking at the same information that you’re saying. To say that your information is somehow different from theirs is really not being honest here.

Ms. Greene was right to be suspicious. As Glenn Beck reported on his show last week…

He has, in 1995, he got a BA in religion, in religious studies, a BA. That’s not a PhD – Santa Clara University. In 1999, Masters in world religions from Harvard. Okay, good, not a PhD. In 2002, a Masters in fine arts in fiction, interesting – in the University of Iowa.

In 2009, a PhD in sociology. That is bizarre. So he’s studying us. He’s learning how to write fiction, and he learns how to speak the religious language. Wow, it’s a fascinating work here. But you know what I notice, there’s no history degree. There’s no history degree. He’s not a PhD in religions, and he’s not a historian. It’s possible that his Harvard theology degree included some history credits, but that’s not the same, not even on the same planet as an expert with a PhD in the history of religions.

…He’s not a PhD in the history of religions. He is not a historian. I tell you what, next time I’m on any channel, I’m going to insist that they put historian underneath my name. I spend a lot of time looking at history, a lot of time. Do you think they’d let me get away with historian? How about if I said I was a PhD in American history, and I don’t have that? Would anybody allow me to get away with it?

A cursory glance at his book reveals serious flaws in both fact and logic. But before I leave there, could you please put up where he’s teaching now, because he said I want you to know what I’m teaching here. This is what I do. I’m a professor of history specializing in the Gospels. No, actually he’s at UC Riverside, and he’s in the department of creative writing. Really? He also is…he’s at the University of Southern California in public diplomacy, which is an interesting place for him to be.

He’s also a contributor for The Daily Beast, but my favorite, my favorite is the last one. Can we put this up? He’s a sometimes professor, sometimes professor, and Tiffany, if you can please find that for me. He’s a sometimes professor, and what he’s doing is he’s teaching people something fantastic. He’s teaching people Middle Eastern revolution. That’s what he’s a professor of, revolution through – go ahead, here it is – revolution “on the art of protest in the Middle East, examining protest literature, film, art, and music. There it is, Drew University.

In other words, Professor Aslan is a Muslim Sociology Professor who decided to make money by writing an inaccurate book about Jesus Christ, while lying about his credentials, and not publicly acknowledging, (except when pressed about it and on page 2 of his book) that he is a Muslim, and therefore, does not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 

Every Liberal review that I have read, concerning the Fox Interview, has savaged Ms. Green, calling the interview and the way she handled it, “an embarrassment”.

Since when has it been an “embarrassment” for an American Christian to stand up for Jesus Christ?

Ms. Greene deserves accolades, not admonishment.

She exposed a phony “religious scholar” and burst the collective bubble of “the smartest people in the room”.

They are the ones who should be embarrassed for supporting a phony. But, they’re not.

They still support Obama, don’t they?

Until He Comes,

KJ

Keeping the Faith: Lighting a Candle in the Darkness

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics21 Comments

WashingtonPrayingI am an anachronism.

I was told that, in no uncertain terms, yesterday, by “Libertarians”, on a Conservative website I frequent.

My crime? I refused to be in favor of legalizing marijuana, and I had the nerve to say that I felt that it was more dangerous than alcohol. What’s more, I refused to say that there was a moral equivalency between them.

But, that’s a discussion for another day.

Dictionary.com defines an anachronism as

something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time.

I suppose that’s me.

I started this Blog as a way to vent my frustrations with the ever-evolving “societal norms” and political mayhem around me. A lot of things just grated on my nerves. They still do.

I was “reared” (as we say in Dixie) by a Mother and Daddy (Southern colloquialism for a Male Parental Unit) who were members of the Greatest Generation. In fact, I was born 3 days before my mother’s 40th brithday. To this day, I believe that they were going to name me “Oops”.

My view of the world around me was shaped and nurtured by my Daddy, a Christian American, and the finest man I’ve ever known, who served with an Army Engineering Unit, as a Master Sergeant, in World War II, and who jumped off of a perfectly good boat into a hail of gunfire to join his American Brothers in the tide-turning American Victory known as “D-Day”.

Between him and my Mother, they taught me what it was to be a hard-working, Middle Class Christian American Conservative….and, to be proud of it.

But now, at 54 years old, having just seen an anti-American, Muslim-sympathizing, political-pandering, class warfare-preaching, card-carrying Communist, get re-hired for a job in which, if he were in the private section, his butt would have gotten canned  within the first 7 months, I’m beginning to feel like I’m beating my dadgum head against the wall until it’s bloody, and for no cotton-pickin’ reason at all.

Why am I feelng that way?

Well, there are several reasons.

1. This country re-elected an idiot. Now, I realize that’s been done before. But, they all paled in comparison to this guy. I believe that “Scooter”, my pet name for Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmm), burnt up the vast majority of his gray matter during his “Choom Gang” days in Hawaii, and now, as an old friend, a former Meth-head, who, sadly, later committed suicide this time of year, used to tell me, he has “2 brain cells left and they’re fighting to the death”. I pray we survive the next 4 years.

2.  Evidently, Americans, at least the majority of the ones that actually got up off the couch (Pookie, included) to vote on November 6th, want the Federal Government to take care of them, cradle to grave. Rush Limbaugh labelled this symptom, “The Baracky Claus Effect”.  I pray, that, just as the Proletariat eventually figured out in the old Soviet Union, Americans are going to wake up one day, to find that mega-dependence on The State to run your life, leads to the loss of personal freedom. And those, who believe that they are “the most enlightened people in the room”, will be the first ones hollering, when they discover that their freedom has been taken away.

3. America seems to be devolving into a collection of Libertines. Notice, I did not say “Libertarians”, although, both descriptive words come from the same root word. A Libertine is, per Merriam-Webster.com,

a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality: one leading a dissolute (lacking moral restraint) life

Being a Libertarian used to mean you wanted less Government in your life and less restrictions on your personal happiness. Notice I said used to mean. Now, Libertine and Libertarian both seem to mean the same thing to the majority of posters self-identifying as members of the latter group on Internet chat boards.

Caligula’s Horse approves.

I suppose I could pontificate on the fallen nature of Man at this point, but, that’s fairly self-evident…and, as the late Freddie Prinze used to say, “Ees not my yob, man.”

4. Finally, I was told the other day, during the before-mentioned “discussion” on that Facebook Page, that my blog was considered a “joke”. I allowed this to hurt me very deeply. You see, since April of 2010, I have devoted a lot of time and effort to putting my ideas, however old-fashioned and cornball they are, down on paper. I truly enjoy doing it. I must. I haven’t made a dadgum dime off of it. Although, as I’ve previously written, it did help me land my present job.

A while back, I was asked to define what it means to be a Christian American Conservative.  After all, that’s how I identify myself and that is what it says on the top of this blog, since I began this exercise in ranting and raving in April of 2010.

Let’s perform a dissection, shall we?

First word:  Christian – A follower of Jesus Christ.

I was raised as a Christian by my parents and accepted Christ as my personal Savior many years ago.

Here are some interesting things about Christianity to consider, written by Dr. Ray Pritchard and posted on christianity.com:

1) The name “Christian” was not invented by early Christians. It was a name given to them by others.
2) Christians called themselves by different names—disciples, believers, brethren, saints, the elect, etc.
3) The term apparently had a negative meaning in the beginning: “those belonging to the Christ party.”
4) It was a term of contempt or derision.
5) We can get a flavor for it if we take the word “Christ” and keep that pronunciation. You “Christ-ians.”
6) It literally means “Christ-followers.”
7) Over time a derogatory term became a positive designation.
8) Occasionally you will hear someone spit the term out in the same way it was used in the beginning. “You Christians think you’re the only ones going to heaven.”
9) There was a sense of suffering and reproach attached to the word in the New Testament.

In working my way toward an answer to “What is a Christian?” I decided to check out the dictionary. I found these two definitions:

1. One who professes belief in Jesus as Christ or follows the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus. 2. One who lives according to the teachings of Jesus.”

That’s actually quite helpful because it gives some content to the word. To be a Christian means that you . . .

Believe Something
Follow Something
Live Something
A Fully Devoted Follower To borrow a contemporary phrase, we could simply say that a Christian is a “fully devoted follower of Jesus.” As I think about that, two insights come to mind.

1) It doesn’t happen by accident. You are not “born” a Christian nor are you a Christian because of your family heritage. Being a Christian is not like being Irish. You aren’t a Christian simply because you were born into a Christian family.
2) It requires conversion of the heart. By using the term “conversion,” I simply mean what Jesus meant when he said that to be his disciple meant to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). The heart itself must be changed so that you become a follower of the Lord.

Second word: American – A citizen of the United States of America.

Stephen M. Warchawsky, wrote the following in an article for americanthinker.org:

So what, then, does it mean to be an American? I suspect that most of us believe, like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in describing pornography, that we “know it when we see it.” For example, John Wayne, Amelia Earhart, and Bill Cosby definitely are Americans. The day laborers standing on the street corner probably are not. But how do we put this inner understanding into words? It’s not easy. Unlike most other nations on Earth, the American nation is not strictly defined in terms of race or ethnicity or ancestry or religion. George Washington may be the Father of Our Country (in my opinion, the greatest American who ever lived), but there have been in the past, and are today, many millions of patriotic, hardworking, upstanding Americans who are not Caucasian, or Christian, or of Western European ancestry. Yet they are undeniably as American as you or I (by the way, I am Jewish of predominantly Eastern European ancestry). Any definition of “American” that excludes such folks — let alone one that excludes me! — cannot be right.

Consequently, it is just not good enough to say, as some immigration restrictionists do, that this is a “white-majority, Western country.” Yes, it is. But so are, for example, Ireland and Sweden and Portugal. Clearly, this level of abstraction does not take us very far towards understanding what it means to be “an American.” Nor is it all that helpful to say that this is an English-speaking, predominately Christian country. While I think these features get us closer to the answer, there are millions of English-speaking (and non-English-speaking) Christians in the world who are not Americans, and millions of non-Christians who are. Certainly, these fundamental historical characteristics are important elements in determining who we are as a nation. Like other restrictionists, I am opposed to public policies that seek, by design or by default, to significantly alter the nation’s “demographic profile.” Still, it must be recognized that demography alone does not, and cannot, explain what it means to be an American.

So where does that leave us? I think the answer to our question, ultimately, must be found in the realms of ideology and culture. What distinguishes the United States from other nations, and what unites the disparate peoples who make up our country, are our unique political, economic, and social values, beliefs, and institutions. Not race, or religion, or ancestry.

Third word: Conservative -A person who holds to traditional values and attitudes.

J. Matt Barber wrote in the Washington Times that

Ronald Reagan often spoke of a “three-legged stool” that undergirds true conservatism. The legs are represented by a strong defense, strong free-market economic policies and strong social values. For the stool to remain upright, it must be supported by all three legs. If you snap off even one leg, the stool collapses under its own weight.

A Republican, for instance, who is conservative on social and national defense issues but liberal on fiscal issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative socialist.

A Republican who is conservative on fiscal and social issues but liberal on national defense issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative dove.

By the same token, a Republican who is conservative on fiscal and national defense issues but liberal on social issues – such as abortion, so-called gay rights or the Second Amendment – is not a Reagan conservative. He is a socio-liberal libertarian.

Put another way: A Republican who is one part William F. Buckley Jr., one part Oliver North and one part Rachel Maddow is no true conservative. He is – well, I’m not exactly sure what he is, but it ain’t pretty.

Even the Brits understand what American Conservatism is.

Per blogs.telegraph.co.uk:

Conservatism is thriving in America today because liberty, freedom and individual responsibility are at the heart of its ideology, one that rejects the foolish notion that government knows best. And its strength owes a great debt to the conviction and ideals of Ronald Reagan, who always believed that America’s best days are ahead of her, and for whom the notion of decline was unacceptable. As the Gipper famously put it, in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in 1988:

Those who underestimate the conservative movement are the same people who always underestimate the American people.

In conclusion, I, a Christian American Conservative, am a follower of Jesus Christ and a citizen of the United States of America (by the Grace of God), who holds to traditional values and attitudes.

So, where do I go from here? Do I run away, with my tail between my legs, and live out the rest of my days in quiet desperation?

To any of you who repled, “yes”…you don’t know me very well.

Greater is He who is in me, than he who is in the world.

My Creator, while endowing me with certain inalienable rights, also endowed me with an indomitable will. Then, somewhere along my journey, He gave me the gift of being able to express my thoughts and feelings on this computer keyboard.

I will not give up. I will not surrender my Christianity, my love of the greatest nation on God’s green Earth, or my Conservatism, to appease those who wish everybody would just get in line and acquiesce to the prevailing “societal norms”.  I follow another set of guidelines, written a long time ago, but which remain as relevant as the moment in which the Hand of God guided those who wrote them down.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, – Colossians 3:23 (ESV)

I pray that you, the reader, are able to glean that from my blogs.  Because, as Matthew 6:21 tells us:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

May God bless you and yours,

KJ

Freedom…What a Concept.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

American FreedomIn yesterday’s post, I touched on how the word “Freedom” is misunderstood.

The words “Freedom” and “Liberty” are intertwined…similar offspring from one Father…the Father of Man.

As as 54 year old, I was privileged to cast my first-ever vote for Ronald Wilson Reagan, the greatest President of the United States of my generation. He once said, 

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

One reason that President Reagan was so beloved by my generation was the fact that he dared to espouse the same beliefs, secular and sacred, which our Founding Fathers held so dear.

Especially, their beliefs concerning this unique gift of God, known as American Freedom.

Benjamin Franklin said,

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

What Dr. Franklin was talking about is the fact, as you’ve seen me state time and time again, that with Freedom comes Responsibility. Our actions have a direct effect on those around us.

Furthermore, man is a corrupt animal. Every child learns how to lie, at an early age. That is why we are told as parents to “raise a child in the way in which they should go”.

And, as those of us my age have observed, in the last couple of generations, there are less parents heeding that admonition from God’s Word.

Walk into any Walmart across America, and observe the behavior of children and their parents. It have become almost impossible to walk though a Walmart without almost running over a kid. And, please don’t stand there and wait for an apology from the mother of the “precious darling”, those come few and far between.

To be bold, a lot of these undisciplined children, grow up to be young adults, who seem to be allergic to responsibility. These are the ones, who, after college, refuse to leave home. Like the movie title, they experience a “Failure to Launch”.

Their every breathing moment is a quest for self-fulfillment, and an all-consuming involvement in a love affair…with themselves.

This selfishness guides their political ideology, as well. Usually these individuals become, either Liberals, or, they identify themselves as Libertarians. Those who identify themselves as Liberals, believe that their intellect is innately higher than the rest of us, and, therefore, they should be able to be the Elite Class, political party in charge of our nation. Those who choose to identify themselves as Libertarians, claim to believe in Fiscal Conservatism, and  Social Liberalism.

There is also a different sort of Libertarian in America….those who believe in the Constitution and the liberty of the individual. Those “Constitutionalists” are not the ones to whom I am referring.

Where the problem arises is the fact that Liberalism, Libertarian. and Libertine all share the same root word “lib”, which means “free”. The word “Liberty” contains that word, also.

The problem is, “Freedom” or “Liberty” without conscience, is licentiousness. And, unrestricted  licentiousness will destroy an empire.

If man is left to his own devices, he usually builds his own Golden Calf.

And, I am afraid that is what has happened in this sacred land.

Dr. Franklin once wrote,

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

Just the other day, in Texas, a group of Pro-life Protesters, standing outside the Capitol, where a bill calling for restrictions on third trimester abortions was being discussed, suddenly started singing the great American Hymn, “Amazing Grace”. Once they began, Pro-Abortion counter-protesters started chanted “Hail Satan! and “Jesus should have been aborted!”.

Now, I have seen Liberals on Conservative websites claim those horrible chants were just a feeble attempt to drown out the Pro-Lifers.  I asked a Liberal, who wrote such an excuse, if he would be able to chant those words in a public square.

I never got an answer.

Would you, as an average American, be able to say something that blasphemous in public? Probably not.

My love for the Savior prevents me from even thinking them.

The point of my post is, while my generation and the majority of Americans, I believe, still recognize that Divine Spark that led to the birth of our American Freedom, we have those among us, who would rather fulfill their own selfish desires than be held accountable for their actions by their fellow man or a Divine Power. They proclaim American Exceptionalism, however, they do not seem to wish to participate in it. In fact, they seem to be quite content to watch the “shining city on a hill” be “radically changed” into North Korea or Venezuela, while, socially, coming down on the very same side of important national issues, as the Liberals they claim to oppose.

President Reagan once said,

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Perhaps, that is the reason we find ourselves as a nation, struggling so mightily to stay free.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Gay Wednesday, or, How to Change the Fabric of American Society in One Fell Swoop

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

gay marriageIn my post yesterday, I warned that what the Supreme Court was about to do, could possibly change the fabric of our society.

God in Heaven, I hate it when I’m right.

The robed ones yesterday destroyed the uniqueness of the marriage bed between man and wife, and the sovereignty of a state’s voters, all in one fell swoop.

First, the Court ruled that the part of the Defense of Marriage Act denying equal benefits to homosexual “married” couples was “unconstitutional” in their eyes, so they struck down that codicil.

Now, homosexual couples who have been “married” in states which allow that doppelganger of a “sacrament”, are entitled to all the governmental benefits that normal married couples enjoy.

In the second ruling of the day, the highest court in the land ruled that the ruling by a Gay Appeals Judge, which negated the results of a popular vote on the  California Referendum on Proposition 8, would stand, basically pulling a Pontius Pilate, killing the sovereignty of Californians to decide their own fate, in regards as to whether or not to allow Homosexual Marriage in their state.

You see, the good citizens of California stood up on their hind legs and voted against allowing homosexuals to imitate the oldest sacred ceremony known to mankind.

And, Lord knows , we can’t allow Americans to decide for themselves, can we? If you think I’m joking, remember Chief Justice “Benedict Arnold” Roberts’ ruling on Obamacare?

Of course, the Prevaricator-in-Chief thought that yesterday was the most wonderful thing  he had heard, since his next door neighborhood Frank Marshall Davis used to regale him with tales of his pedophiliac conquests.

In fact, he called a homosexual couple to congratulate them on live TV.

Funny…just 18 months ago, ol’ Scooter was saying,

I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.

So, was Obama lying then, or is he lying now?

Yes.

Now, there are those who will argue that these are just small steps and what happened yesterday is no big hairy deal. There are also those who believe that yesterday was the greatest day in the history of the world.

Side note: It wasn’t. That day will be when we hear a trumpet sound above us…and, it won’t be Doc Severenson. But, I digress…

Normalization of this deviant behavior has already happened to our Brightest and Best, with the overturning of DADT.

Just the other day, the four-star idiots in the Pentagon declared that our country is now safer with openly gay members in our military.

Safer from what? Inter-service pregnancies?

Now that homosexual activists know that they can overturn the will of the people of a state, if the Liberal State Government does not support their citizens in a legal defense of sovereignty, all bets are off.

Like Gov. Moonbean (Jerry Brown) of California, all it takes is one Liberal weasel of a State Governor to overturn an anti-Homosexual Marriage Vote in any state in the Union, if the state’s gay activists are willing to take their action all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.

Here is another thing that makes me wanna hurl, cry, and bang my head against the wall, all at the same time:

The National Cathedral in Washington, DC rang its steeple bells in celebration when the rulings were announced.

What part of God’s Word do they believe supports Homosexual Marriage? What book of the Bible is that found? 1st Babylonians?

Genesis 2:21-25 states:

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

We’ve come a long way, baby…and, it appears that our country is beginning a descent down the ol’ porcelain receptacle, a societal voyage not unlike the one Ancient Rome experienced.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 1, Verses 24-27, he writes, concerning the Roman Empire’s depravity,

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

That is where we stand, Americans.

Grab those who matter to you and hold them tight. I am afraid that there are dark times ahead…and we are well on the way to finding out why America is not mentioned in the Book of  Revelation.

Until He comes,

KJ

A Country Forged By Faith: Jefferson, Madison, and Church in the Capitol Building

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

PROLOGUE: I originally wrote this post on September 18, 2011. I picked today to re-post it, as we wait on the Supreme Court to make decisions that will affect the very fabric of our society.  Because you see, boys and girls, despite what Liberals and Atheists will tell you, America was founded by Christians, who escaped religious persecution to come to this sacred land, in order to freely practice their faith.

Please be in prayer for the Supreme Court, our Brightest and Best serving in the Armed Forces, our Leaders, and our country, that this nation, founded under God, might continue to be “the Shining City on a Hill”.

Christianity has played a predominant role in the building of our nation.  In fact, the Capitol building itself was used for church services, even before Congress moved into the building, and continued to be used for Sunday Church Services until well after the Civil War.

The approval of the Capitol for church was given by both the House and the Senate on December 4, 1800, with House approval being given by Speaker of the House, Theodore Sedgwick, and Senate approval being given by the President of the Senate, Thomas Jefferson, whose approval came while he was still officially the Vice- President but after he had just been elected President.

According to David Barton at wallbuilders.com:

Jefferson attended church at the Capitol while he was Vice President 5 and also throughout his presidency. The first Capitol church service that Jefferson attended as President was a service preached by Jefferson’s friend, the Rev. John Leland, on January 3, 1802. 6 Significantly, Jefferson attended that Capitol church service just two days after he penned his famous letter containing the “wall of separation between church and state” metaphor.

U. S. Rep. Manasseh Cutler, who also attended church at the Capitol, recorded in his own diary that “He [Jefferson] and his family have constantly attended public worship in the Hall.” Mary Bayard Smith, another attendee at the Capitol services, confirmed: “Mr. Jefferson, during his whole administration, was a most regular attendant.” She noted that Jefferson even had a designated seat at the Capitol church: “The seat he chose the first Sabbath, and the adjoining one (which his private secretary occupied), were ever afterwards by the courtesy of the congregation, left for him and his secretary.” Jefferson was so committed to those services that he would not even allow inclement weather to dissuade him; as Rep. Cutler noted: “It was very rainy, but his [Jefferson’s] ardent zeal brought him through the rain and on horseback to the Hall.” Other diary entries confirm Jefferson’s attendance in spite of bad weather.

…Jefferson was not the only President to attend church at the Capitol. His successor, James Madison, also attended church at the Capitol. 14 However, there was a difference in the way the two arrived for services. Observers noted that Jefferson arrived at church on horseback 15 (it was 1.6 miles from the White House to the Capitol). However, Madison arrived for church in a coach and four. In fact, British diplomat Augustus Foster, who attended services at the Capitol, gave an eloquent description of President Madison arriving at the Capitol for church in a carriage drawn by four white horses.

The series of cacophonous thuds you just heard were the “I’m-smarter than-you” Atheists from both sides of the aisle, falling off their chairs.  You see, they (all 8% of them) will argue until they are blue in the face that Jefferson and Madison were not Christians, and our founding documents were not based on a Judeo-Christian system of beliefs.

Then, they go out to feed the unicorn in their backyard.

Jefferson told his friend, William Bradford (who served as Attorney General under President Washington), to make sure of his own spiritual salvation:

[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.

Concerning Christianity, Jefferson said:

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.

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.

But, what about Jefferson’s re-writing of the Bible, leaving out Jesus’ miracles, you ask? David Barton answered that question in 2001, in a letter to a newspaper, in response to a reader:

The reader, as do many others, claimed that Jefferson omitted all miraculous events of Jesus from his “Bible.” Rarely do those who make this claim let Jefferson speak for himself. Jefferson’s own words explain that his intent for that book was not for it to be a “Bible,” but rather for it to be a primer for the Indians on the teachings of Christ (which is why Jefferson titled that work, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”). What Jefferson did was to take the “red letter” portions of the New Testament and publish these teachings in order to introduce the Indians to Christian morality. And as President of the United States, Jefferson signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe wherein he provided—at the government’s expense—Christian missionaries to the Indians. In fact, Jefferson himself declared, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” While many might question this claim, the fact remains that Jefferson called himself a Christian, not a deist.

The other Founding Father whom Atheists claim was one of them is James Madison.

Per David Barton:

James Madison trained for ministry with the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, and Madison’s writings are replete with declarations of his faith in God and in Christ. In fact, for proof of this, one only need read his letter to Attorney General Bradford wherein Madison laments that public officials are not bold enough about their Christian faith in public and that public officials should be “fervent advocates in the cause of Christ.” And while Madison did allude to a “wall of separation,” contemporary writers frequently refuse to allow Madison to provide his own definition of that “wall.” According to Madison, the purpose of that “wall” was only to prevent Congress from passing a national law to establish a national religion.

Also, as this writing shows, Madison wanted all public officials – including Bradford – to be unashamed concerning their Christian beliefs and testimony:

I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.

Did you know that Madison was a member of the committee that authored the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights and approved of its clause declaring that:

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.  ?

And, per Barton, Madison’s proposed wording for the First Amendment demonstrates that he opposed only the establishment of a federal denomination, not public religious activities.  The proposal reads:

The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established.

But, wait.  There’s more:

In 1789, Madison served on the Congressional committee which authorized, approved, and selected paid Congressional chaplains.

In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided a Bible Society in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible.

Finally, throughout his Presidency (1809-1816), Madison endorsed public and official religious expressions by issuing several proclamations for national days of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving.

So, if you run into one of those individuals who, when it comes to accepting the Faith of our Founding Fathers, proves that denial is not just a river in Egypt, you can respond with one or all of three things:

1.  Quote from this article.

2.  Give him/her this link to wallbuilders.com.

3.  Show them this excellent video, in which David Barton conducts a historical tour of the Capitol Building.

God Bless America!

Until He Comes,

KJ

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TdhwWFFydxk]

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

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!

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