Tag: Christianity

What percentage of Americans identify themselves as Christians?

The BSA…To GOD and My Country…No Longer

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

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

That’s just a matter of time.

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

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

Conservative Christian  Churches do not feel the same way:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From scouting.org:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Because it sure won’t be Christianity anymore.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

It’s That “Content of Their Character” Thingy…Again

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

iron man 3Yesterday Afternoon, my bride and I decided to go see Iron Man 3 at our local multiple-screen movie house. The movie itself was great. Robert Downey, Jr. IS Tony Stark and the digital effects were outstanding.

As is our custom, we took our seats at the end of the row. In the seat beside me was a young high school aged, or a little bit older, young woman, who happened to be black. Her boyfriend and one of their mothers were sitting beside her.

As we went to sit down, my wife noticed the young woman frowning and glaring at us, as if we were wearing white sheets and pillow cases, or something. She continued to talk during the previews , both on her  Android cell phone, and to her boyfriend. I didn’t think much of it, since it was only the previews that were playing.

However, when the movie started, she didn’t shut up, as any polite person would do. Oh, no. She kept on yapping during the movie. And, when this heifer wasn’t running her mouth, she was sighing or yawning loudly. Heck, she even started talking on her phone during the movie.

It was quite evident that this youngster was intentionally trying to run us out of our seats. Just when I was about to give her the use of our popcorn bucket as a hat, it struck me: she wasn’t worth it.

Pookie and her family left right at the end of the movie. Too bad. If they had seen the first two Iron Man Movies they would have known that there was an additional scene of the movie at the end of the credits. And, this time, the scene was quite hilarious.

In a related story, earlier this week, I had stopped at the Dodge Store (a gas station/fried chicken, etc. place), on the way to work, to pick up a Diet Coke. As I stood in line, another register opened up. There was already a big fella over there, who appeared to be in line, but, surprisingly, he motioned me to come over there, saying that I had been in line, first.

As I made the move to go over to the other register, a young fellow, again, who happened to be black, and in a Coca-Cola uniform, by the way, just sauntered on up to the register, while the other fellow, who was  trying to be mannerly, and I, looked on in disbelief. Deciding not to make a scene, we just watched him pay the cashier and traipse on out the door.

Now, I’m 54 years old, and a mannerly person, raised by a gentle, loving Christian man. My mother, however, had a temper, being Irish-American. Friends and family have described me as having a long fuse which leads to a keg of gun powder.

That’s one reason I have written almost 1,200 Blogs. It gives me the opportunity to vent.

Anyway, back to my train of thought. As I have related before, I’m a Memphian by birth, resident of DeSoto County, Mississippi, by choice.

Former Memphis Mayor W.W. Herenton told all of us …ummm…”taxpayers”…that he neither wanted nor needed us in his city, several years ago. So, I snuck under the barbed wire, and escaped to the Magnolia State.

I wasn’t alone.

During Herenton’s reign as Mayor (1991-2009), Memphis went from being “The City of Good Abode” to Detroit South.

Since 1997, when I moved out of Memphis, the city has rapidly gone downhill, and along with it, the city school system. So much so, in fact, that recently,  in a power-grabbing effort to get away from the blame for their horrible stewardship of the school system, the City School Board surrendered their charter to the state, held an election among city voters only, seeking to merge with the better-run, financially stable County School System.

Of course, the city voters backed the board up, and an interim school board was formed, which is presently heavily stacked with the politicians from the soon-to-be-defunct City Schools.

The merger is set to be final in 2014. However, the towns in Shelby County have been given the right by a ruling from the Tennessee Court System, and the signing of a bill into law by Gov. Haslam, to form their own individual school systems in any town which can afford to do so.

Needless, to say, that isn’t sitting too well with the self-promoting former City School Board members. Oh, what a tangled web we weave…

Also, during this time, the Memphis City Council, out of the blue, in the dead of night, decided to take away the names of three historic parks. These parks were named Confederate Park, Forrest Park, and Jefferson Davis Park.

The council claimed that Memphians were offended by the names of the historic parks. Funny, though. Memphis’ CBS Affiliate, WREG, ran a poll whose results showed that the majority of citizens wanted the names to remain the same.

By now, you’ve probably said to yourself, “KJ’s gone off on a tangent…again”.

Actually, I haven’t.

Did you know, that in the Mid-South area of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, the illegitimate birth rate of Black Americans is right at 75%? I heard that stat on the Ben Ferguson Show the other afternoon as I was driving home from work. Think about that: 3 out of every 4 black children, will start out at a disadvantage in this life.

Studies have shown that children are more well-adjusted when they are raised in traditional two-parent families, with two strong role models to teach them right from wrong, good manners from bad, and respect for others.

Now, I realize that I’m just an ol’ cracka, but, it seems to me that, at least in the Memphis area, it’s not some sort of government slight of the city schools, nor parks, which were named decades ago after a moment in history that cannot be erased, nor should it be, that is keeping Black Americans in Memphis and surrounding areas from prospering.

The Black community, as does our nation in general, needs to return to our Christian heritage, which made us a strong and united people, who together, are capable of defeating any foe,removing any obstacle, and trimphing over any adversity.

I believe, if Black Leaders would start devoting their attention to the problems of their community: illegitimate births, abortions, single parent homes, unemployment, and out-of-control crime, including gang violence, instead of throwing out excuses, things would begin to turn around.

Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, a woman of Faith and a tireless Pro-life Advocate, working within the Black Community (who happens to be a Facebook friend), is a great example of someone who is making a difference.

And others, like Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Ben Carson, Lt. Col. Allen West, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are outstanding role models for all of America’s youth.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said,

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Our nation needs a “Come to Jesus” meeting. And, we need it right now, before Dr. King’s prophecy comes to fruition.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The New Boston Massacre: A Matter of Faith

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

americanchristianflag 2I am a Christian American Conservative. I make no apologies for it. I believe in the triune God and I believe that America is the greatest country on the face of the Earth.

I wrote yesterday about the reticence of both the Obama Administration and the Main Stream Media to identify the murderous brothers who were responsible for the New Boston Massacre as Muslim Terrorists.

If the Terrorists had been like me, A Southern Baptist from Mississippi, ol’ Scooter and his minions would have shouted it from the rooftops for the whole world to hear.

In fact, during the early aftermath of the massacre, they were publicly wishing for that to be the case.

The Liberal Hierarchy desperately wanted the perpetrator of that heinous attack to be an American Christian. Then, they could have “killed two birds with one stone.

In today’s “Me First” Culture, Patriotism and Christianity are considered passe, by the new “diverse” society, which the Liberals, and their unwitting lackeys, are so desperately trying to build.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, without a love of country, a nation is lost. Without love of God, one’s soul is.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m no Pollyanna. I am quite aware of the things with have been done in the name of Christianity. However, I’m also acutely aware of the barbarism that has been done, and is still being done, in the name of Allah.

Andrew McCarthy, in an article for nationalreview.com, wrote this week, that

We are in a war driven by ideology. “Violent extremism,” which is the label the government and the commentariat prefer to put on our enemies, is not an ideology — it is the brutality that radical ideologies yield. Our enemies’ ideology is Islamic supremacism. To challenge and defeat an ideological movement, you have to understand and confront their vision of the world. Imposing your own assumptions and biases will not do. Islamic supremacists do not see a world of Westphalian nation-states. They do not distinguish between Russia and America the way they distinguish between Muslims and non-Muslims. Their ideology frames matters as Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-Harb: the realm of Islam in a fight to the death against the realm of war — which is everyone and everyplace else.

The fact that you think this is nuts, or that I’m nuts for saying it out loud, has nothing to do with whether they believe it. They do — and they don’t care, even a little, what you think.

You do not defeat an ideology by hoping it will change or disappear. You have to challenge it, to make it defend its baleful tenets in the light of day. You cannot protect yourself from its violent outbursts absent understanding its teaching, reluctantly accepting that its teaching will inevitably lead some Muslims to strike out savagely, and committing to a pro-active, intelligence-based counterterrorism strategy — one that scraps political correctness and ferrets out the jihadists before they strike.

I have heard and read from some of this “Me, First Generation” that there is not any difference between Christianity and Islam. Quite Frankly, that’s like saying that there’s no difference between an in-ground swimming pool and a garden hose.

In Islam, the way to “walk with God and escape his judgement on that final day of judgment is through ‘falah’, which means self-effort or positive achievement. The faithful must submit to God and follow all of his laws as found in the Koran. Judgment day in Islam involves some sort of measurement of what the believer has done wrong and what they’ve done right. And even then you might not be let into heaven if Allah decides you’re not good enough.

This is the direct opposite of Christianity.

According to the Bible, no man can ever be good enough to deserve God’s favor, to win God’s heaven, because from birth we have Free Will. This Free Will may cause us to reject God and live our lives our own way. That’s why it was necessary for Jesus Christ to die for our sins, covering us in His blood of the New Covenant.

God’s Word tells us that what we need is not ‘falah,’ but faith. To have faith in, to trust, to rely on Jesus and his death as as “the expiation for our sins”. Those who have been Saved by Jesus Christ can be sure that in the future God will welcome them into heaven with wide open arms, because they have been washed by His blood.

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 78% 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.

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, their immersion into Radical Islam led them to “kill the infidels” that horrendous day.

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

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity – Mississippi Fights Back

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

americanchristianflag 2As I have related before, I live in DeSoto County, Mississippi, in the Northwest Corner of the state, right across Stateline Road from Memphis , TN, where I was born and raised.

A truly remarkable thing happened on Friday in the state of Mississippi. Governor Phil Bryant signed a bill into law. Okay. I know that you’re saying, “KJ, why is a governor, signing a bill passed by his state legislature into law, so remarkable?”

I’m glad you asked. Here is the bill:

House Bill 638

AN ACT TO BE KNOWN AS THE “RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS ANTIDISCRIMINATION ACT” OR “SCHOOLCHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES ACT”; TO PROHIBIT LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS FROM DISCRIMINATING AGAINST STUDENTS BASED ON THEIR EXPRESSION OF RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS ON OTHERWISE PERMISSIBLE SUBJECTS; TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO ADOPT A POLICY THAT ESTABLISHES A LIMITED PUBLIC FORUM FOR STUDENT SPEAKERS AT SCHOOL EVENTS AND TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO PUBLISH A DISCLAIMER STATING THAT THE STUDENTS’ VIEWS DO NOT REFLECT THOSE OF THE DISTRICT; TO CLARIFY THAT STUDENTS MAY EXPRESS THEIR BELIEFS ABOUT RELIGION IN HOMEWORK, ARTWORK AND OTHER ASSIGNMENTS; TO AUTHORIZE STUDENTS TO ORGANIZE PRAYER GROUPS, RELIGIOUS CLUBS AND OTHER RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS TO THE SAME EXTENT THAT STUDENTS ARE PERMITTED TO ORGANIZE OTHER NONCURRICULAR STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND GROUPS; TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO ADOPT A POLICY REGARDING LIMITED PUBLIC FORUMS AND VOLUNTARY EXPRESSION OF RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS; TO PROVIDE A MODEL POLICY ON STUDENT EXPRESSION OF RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINTS AND STUDENT SPEAKERS WHICH SCHOOL DISTRICTS MAY ADOPT; TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-4.1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 37-13-4, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDES THAT TEACHERS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS MAY PERMIT THE VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION BY STUDENTS IN PRAYER, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; TO BRING FORWARD SECTION 37-13-161, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDES THAT LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS MAY ALLOW REFERENCES TO RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WHEN THE REFERENCES DO NOT CONSTITUTE AID TO ANY RELIGIOUS SECT OR A SECTARIAN PURPOSE, FOR PURPOSES OF POSSIBLE AMENDMENT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

What this bill does is to allow students to initiate prayers in school and at student activities, to reference their religious beliefs in their schoolwork, both their assignments completed at school and their homework, as well. The bill also allows Mississippi’s students to speak to their classmates about their faith, to “give their witness” as we believers refer to our own personal testimony as to what God has done in our lives.

You will recall, in August of 2011, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a supposedly 13,000 member organization, led by a bitter ex-minister and his equally bitter wife, came down to the Magnolia state , to attempt to ban prayers at high school football games. They prevailed…sort of.

As I wrote, on August 27, 2011,  in a post titled ” The War Against Christianity in America – Battleground: DeSoto County, MS”:

DeSoto County Schools went along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s request, despite the disappointment of many students and parents.

And that’s when Americans started organizing.

Y’see, teammates traditionally would take a knee after the game to thank the Lord for a good game and His blessings and to pray for those injured during the game.  And their parents were bound and determined that their young men were not going to have that freedom taken away from them.

So, last night, instead of the coach telling the team to take a knee, the quarterback did.

Earlier, on Friday morning, students and parents held a prayer walk outside DeSoto County Schools.

As the bright, blessed day gave way to the dark, sacred night in DeSoto County, parents and students began to pray.

…Per the local newspaper, the DeSoto Times Tribune:

At the Olive Branch game, spectators began to pray the Lord’s Prayer in unison around 7:15 p.m. just moments before the Olive Branch High School Conquistadors and Memphis Trezevant took to the field.

The same was the case at Hernando High School just prior to kickoff against Pontotoc.

The Rev. Mike Coker, pastor of the Refuge Church in Hernando led a prayer outside Tiger Stadium before the game and encouraged people in the crowd to pray.

After the singing of the national anthem, people in the stands recited the Lord’s Prayer.

A large group of Horn Lake High School and Lake Cormorant High School parents also joined in saying the Lord’s just prior to the Horn Lake – Lake Cormorant football game at Horn Lake.

The group prayer was not sponsored by the DeSoto County School system and was led by parents, not teachers or administrators.

Here is, as my preacher says, is The Big Idea:

What Mississippi has done, in the passing of this bill, is to affirm Mississippians’ Constitutional rights as stated in the 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.

It will be no shock, that come August, the FFRF will come back down, from the Great White North, with severe, frowning countenances, whining and crying that promoting faith in Mississippi Schools will be offensive and oppressive to those children who don’t have any faith. (Did he just say that?)

The problem they will have, is the fact that participation will be voluntary. They don’t have to include any references to REligion in any of their schoolwork. They do have to attend any Faith-based activities initiated by their fellow students. They don’t have to pray.

Let’s face it. Our children are under attack, by forces seen and unseen, by “princes and principalities”, if you will.

Through political ideology-driven curriculum such as Common Core and programs such as the president’s anti-bullying campaign, a seemingly innocuous program, whose stated purpose is to promote tolerance, and is actually an attempt to mainstream homosexuality, our schools have been invaded by the pestilence known as “progressivism”, or secular humanism. The same pervasive disease that is teaching our children that they are their own god, that there  there are no moral absolutes, and that ethics are situational.

I make no bones about it. I am a Christian American Conservative. I pray daily. And, as I write this, I’m preparing to go to church this morning. If it were up to Barack Hussein Obama, his minions, and those supposedly on “our” side of the aisle, whom I’ve labeled the “Vichy Republicans”, I would be forced to leave my faith at the church door. What they don’t understand, is, the Author and Finisher of my faith is not Obama, Boehner, or anyone else up there on Capitol Hill.

I answer to Someone waaay about their pay grade.

Progressives do not understand Christians at all. They believe that our faith is something that can be taken off and put back on again, as one would a shirt.

They don’t have a clue.

So, why did Mississippians back this bill, provides the impetus for it to be signed into law by our Governor?

Was it simply because we were mad at that bunch of carpetbaggin’ Yankees from the FFRF?

Nope. It’s For The Children.  

Until He Comes,

KJ

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop: A Man of Science. A Man of Faith

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

koopThe finest Surgeon General of the United States in our generation, C. Everett Koopp, passed away this past week.

The following very fair biography is courtesy of msnbc.com (Can you believe it?)

To judge from the reaction on the left, when Ronald Reagan announced his choice for Surgeon General 32 years ago, you would have thought the man he’d chosen had a horn and tail.

C. Everett Koop, who passed away this week at the impressive age of 96, had been the chief of surgery at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where he’d pioneered revolutionary techniques that saved countless infant lives. He was also a committed Christian whose faith and medical work had made him a fervent opponent of abortion. Democrats roared in protest and sent months fighting the nomination. Reagan had been elected with a major assist from the burgeoning Christian Right, and Koop perfectly symbolized the hard-right, almost theocratic direction liberals believed the new president wanted to take the country.

“The nomination” The New York Times declared in one of many editorials condemning Koop’s selection, “is a disservice not only to the Public Health Service and the public itself, but also to Dr. Koop. He is being honored for the most cynical of reasons–not for his medical skills but for his political compatibility.”

But his opponents didn’t really know Koop. And actually, Reagan didn’t either. [ I disagree…but, let’s move on] Because he was also a man of science, and of immense integrity–and when he was finally confirmed in the spring of 1981, Koop set about confounding critics and cheerleaders alike, becoming the most consequential surgeon general in the nation’s history and probably the single most important public health voice of the last three decades.

Smoking was one of his first crusades. The tobacco companies and their powerful allies in Congress denied it, but the evidence was overwhelming: Cigarette smoking was killing Americans in droves. Koop had little official power, but he did have a big platform, and he used it fearlessly–issuing blunt reports on the fatal risks of cigarettes, a landmark warning about the danger of second-hand smoke, and barnstorming the country to urge Americans to change their habits. Jesse Helms–one of the conservatives who’d championed his nomination–turned on him. The governor of North Carolina screamed for his impeachment. It all made Koop’s boss in the White House uncomfortable–but the smoking rate went down.

Then there was AIDS. The earliest reports of the killer virus coincided with the start of Reagan’s presidency, but as the death rate spiked and the mystery deepened, the president and his administration said little and did even less. Except for Dr. Koop, who saw AIDS not as a niche concern of gay men–a constituency much of Reagan’s political base was openly hostile to–but as the public health crisis it was. ”It is time,” Koop said, “to put self-defeating attitudes aside and recognize that we are fighting a disease–not people.” He issued a report that shocked the nation and enraged the right: the AIDS epidemic was only getting worse, Koop said, and while abstinence was the only sure way to stop its spread, the use of condoms by those who opted for sexual activity was essential.

When Reagan asked Koop to study the health risks that abortion posed to women, the surgeon general complied. Ardent abortion foes were hopeful: finally, a way to tilt the abortion debate back in their favor. But Koop did his study and reported back with words that bitterly disappointed the president and his supporters: “I regret, Mr. President, that in spite of a diligent review on the part of many in the Public Health Service and in the private sector, the scientific studies do not provide conclusive data about the health effects of abortion on women.”

C. Everett Koop left office just as committed to his faith and just as opposed to abortion as he had been when he entered office. But his personal moral views never clouded his judgment, or his commitment to public health. He was–and still is–a model surgeon general and his legacy is a reminder that sometimes the worst thing you can do is to judge a book by its cover.

Of course, I disagree with MSNBC on one point. Dr. Koop’s “personal moral view”, aka his Christian Faith, guided the decisions he made, in all aspects of his life. This article first appeared in the March 6, 1987, issue of Christianity Today. At the time, C. Everett Koop was Surgeon General of the United States.

My mother was 87 when she died of uterine cancer. She was in a coma, during which people actually asked me if I wanted to put her on dialysis. That would have been ridiculous for personal, spiritual, and economic reasons.

I do not believe—and have never taught—that every patient should be kept alive for the longest time possible. Nor have I said every patient has to have the last bit of high-tech heroic treatment available. I do believe in the right of the patient to say, “I have lived my life,” and to choose his or her own treatment. But that question becomes complicated when we consider the decisions people make for others who are not cognitive and have not made their final wishes known.

Right now, I am 70 years old and in excellent health. If my kidneys shut down tomorrow, let’s say, after a severe infection, I don’t know how long I would want to be on dialysis. It would be foolish and a waste of resources for me to have a kidney transplant at my age. I would probably opt to clean up my affairs, say goodbye to my family, and drift out in uremia.

The important point is that my wife and I know exactly how each of us feels about the end of life. This will be crucial if the time comes to make such a decision and I’m not then able to do so.

Of course, all such talk has different connotations for the Christian than for the non-Christian. My wife knows I do not believe in being ushered out of this life with a lethal injection. I want to hang around long enough to be sure my family is taken care of. But after that, I don’t want my life prolonged in great discomfort when it is fruitless.

I don’t look forward to the manner in which I am going to die. But I do not fear death. Indeed, the way in which we face death is a matter of faith. For the Christian, it is not the end.

Thank you, Dr. Koop, for your service to this nation, and your love of God and Country. You will be missed, sir. Godspeed.

Until He Comes, 

KJ

“I Am Not A Dictator; I’m The President” …Really?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

obamaburningconstitutionYeah. And, Nixon was not a crook.

That was  a proclamation uttered by the 45th leader of our nation, spoken during a press conference held yesterday, as his plans to tax Americans more were thwarted by Capital Hill Republicans, who finally found their collective spine.

Fox News reports

President Obama signed an order authorizing the government to begin cutting $85 billion from federal accounts, officially enacting across-the-board spending reductions.

Obama acted Friday, the deadline for the president and Congress to avoid the steep, one-year cuts.

The president placed blame squarely on Republican lawmakers at a Friday press conference for failing to stop automatic spending cuts that were to begin kicking in later in the day, calling the cuts “dumb, arbitrary.”

Republicans, for their part, said the fault was his, for insisting that increased taxes be part of the resolution

The president said the impact of the cuts won’t immediately be felt, but middle class families will begin to “have their lives disrupted in significant ways.” He said that as long as the cuts stay in effect, Americans will know that the economy could have been better had they been averted.

“The pain, though, will be real,” Obama said.

He said he still believed the cuts could be replaced but he wanted a deal that includes more tax revenue.

“Let’s be clear: None of this is necessary,” Obama told reporters at the White House. “It’s happening because of a choice that Republicans in Congress have made. We shouldn’t be making a series of dumb, arbitrary cuts to things.”

Obama met for less than an hour Friday morning with House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

Boehner’s office said he and McConnell told Obama they’re willing to close tax loopholes but only to lower taxes overall, not to replace spending cuts. Obama and congressional leaders have agreed that Congress should pass a bill funding the government beyond the end of March while they keep working on a way to replace the spending cuts, Boehner’s office said.

“The president got his tax hikes on January 1st,” Boehner said bluntly after the meeting with Obama. “The discussion about revenue in my view is over. It’s about taking on the spending problem here in Washington.”

On Thursday, two proposals aimed at blunting the blame over the cuts — one Democratic and the other Republican — were rejected in the Senate.

Sequestration is just the latest in a long line of actions (or inactions) by President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) that could be called incompetent and best…and dictatorial , at worst.

Since low information voters re-elected the Manchurian President, he has blatantly attacked average American citizens, in a manner reminiscent of a “benevolent” dictator.

Let”s examine some of his benevolence:

1. Attacking a Free Press – Obama has always been very petulant and condescending toward those who disagree with his brilliance. He spent his first term as president in a constant war with Fox News and Conservative Talk Radio,. Now, he has upped the ante by attacked famed Liberal Journalistic Icon Bob Woodward, of Watergate Fame, who dared to point out the ‘madness” of the Petulant President. Since Woodward’s truth-telling, he has been the target of a smear campaign by Obama’s ministers of propaganda, who have called him everything by a child of God. The Emperor has no clothes!

2. Attacking American Citizens – Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have ruled that it is perfectly legal for unmanned drones to assassinate American citizens anywhere around the globe, if it is deemed that they are an “Enemy of the State”. Unthinkable? Wait…there’s more.  These same unmanned drones will be flying in the skies above our homes! SkyNet has become aware.

3. Attacking Christianity – Under the guise of the implementation of Obamacare, Catholic Hospitals are being told that they have to provide free contraception, including the abortiafacient known as the Morning After Pill, an egregious slap in the face to these institutions and a blatant attack on their denomination’s beliefs. Castro turned on the Church also, after he became dictator.

3. Attacking Christianity, Part 2 – Obama is pushing the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the redefinition of a centuries-old word, which is defined as a sacred bond, established by God, between a man and a woman.”Gay marriage, a contradiction in terms, would begin a descent down a slippery slope, regardless of the current national meme, offered by “the smartest people in the room”. Caligula’s Horse approves.

5. Attacking the Constitution – Obama and his lackeys has seized upon the mass murder of children, committed by a psychopath, in Newtown, Connecticut, to launch an all-out offensive against Americans’ Second Amendment Rights to keep and bare arms. Under the rallying cry of “It’s for the children”, ignorant Leftists across the country have joined arm-in-arm, marching lockstep, to take away those eviiil guns from law-abiding citizens, while ignoring those who are actually killing our children.  They don’t don’t call them outlaws, for nothin’. 

The greatest American President in our lifetime, Ronald Wilson Reagan had this to say concerning our country’s present plight:

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

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.

My bride and I are keeping our 5 year old grandson, Robert, this weekend. I wonder what kind of country will be left for him, if average Americans do not push back against the Machiavellian schemes of this Manchurian President.

We must take a stand against the Tyranny of the Minority.

We must take a stand for Liberty and Traditional American Values.

It’s for the children.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Atheists Complain About “Extensive Discrimination” to the UN. Christian Martyrs Unavailable for Comment.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

unlogoAn International Group representing atheists, humanists, and freethinkers told the United Nations yesterday that they face widespread discrimination around the world. In fact, according to them, when they express their views, they are treated as criminals in some countries, and even subject to to capital punishment.

The group presented a document to the UN’s human Rights Council that claims atheism has been banned by law in a number of countries where people were forced to officially adopt a faith.

According to Reuters News Service on Yahoo.com…

“Extensive discrimination by governments against atheists, humanists and the non-religious occurs worldwide,” declared the grouping, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) which has some 120 member bodies in 45 countries.

In Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan “atheists can face the death penalty on the grounds of their belief” although this was in violation of U.N. human rights accords, the IHEU said.

Further, in several others legal measures “effectively criminalize atheism (and) the expression and manifestation of atheist beliefs” or lead to systematic discrimination against freethinkers, the document declared.

It was submitted to the rights council as it opened its annual Spring session against a background of new efforts in the U.N. by Muslim countries to obtain a world ban on denigration of religion, especially what they call “Islamophobia”.

Three of the states with legislation providing for death for blasphemy against Islam, a charge which can be applied to atheists who publicly reveal their ideas, are on the council – Pakistan, Mauritania and Maldives.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the council on Monday there was a “rising trend” of Islamophobia, adding: “We condemn all sorts of incitement to hatred and religious discrimination against Muslims and people of other faiths.”

And earlier this month a top official of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said the body would be focusing on getting agreement on criminalizing denigration of religion in coming talks with Western countries.

In November last year, the head of the 21-country Arab League told the U.N. Security Council in New York his organisation wanted a binding international framework to ensure “that religious faith and its symbols are respected”.

The IHEU, and other non-governmental rights groupings, argue that many Muslim governments use this terminology and the concept of “religious blasphemy” within their own countries to cow both atheists and followers of other religions.

A number of these governments “prosecute people who express their religious doubt or dissent, regardless of whether those dissenters identify as atheist”, the IHEU document submitted to the rights council said.

Islamic countries – including Bangladesh, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey – had also stepped up prosecution of “blasphemous” expression of criticism of religion in social media like Facebook and Twitter.

OIC countries have 15 seats on the council, all from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and make up just less than one third of the rights body.

Notice that Christian countries are not mentioned by this group?

Per CatholicNews.org…

…there are currently 2.18 billion Christians in more than 200 countries around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 6.9 billion global population in 2010.

The study, conducted by the US-based Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, found Christians to be so geographically widespread that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the centre of global Christianity.

The study, Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population, cites that 100 years ago, two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe but today only about a quarter of all Christians live there.

More than one-third of Christians live in the Americas; about a quarter live in sub-Saharan Africa and 13 percent live in Asia and the Pacific.

The data indicates that during the past 100 years, the number of Christians around the world has more than tripled from historical estimates of approximately 600 million in 1910 to more than 2 billion today.

But the world’s overall population has also risen rapidly, from an estimated 1.8 billion in 1910 to 6.9 billion in 2010. As a result, Christians make up about the same portion of the world’s population in 2010 (32 percent) as they did a century ago (35 percent).

The study also reveals that although Europe and the Americas are still home to a majority (63 percent) of the world’s Christians, that share is much lower than it was in 1910 when it was 93 percent. In the past 100 years, the number of Christians grew significantly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

In fact…

In 2012, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS) reported that globally every day there are 800 less atheists per day, 1,100 less non-religious (agnostic) people per day and 83,000 more people professing to be Christians per day.

In 2011, the American Spectator declared concerning research published in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research:

“The report estimates about 80,000 new Christians every day, 79,000 new Muslims every day, and 300 fewer atheists every day. These atheists are presumably disproportionately represented in the West, while religion is thriving in the Global South, where charismatic Christianity is exploding.”

An Observation….

Christians are being martyred for their faith every day.

According to deseretnews.com, in an article posted 9/2/11,,

On average, a Christian is martyred every five minutes — killed because of their faith.

Zenit.org and CatholicCulture.org reported on a presentation by Massimo Introvigne of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that he gave in this summer at the “International Conference on Inter-religious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims.”

Introvigne told the conference gathered near Budapest the number of Christians killed every year for their faith is about 105,000. And these are only those who were put to death because they were Christians. It does not include those killed as victims of war.

“If these numbers are not cried out to the world, if this slaughter is not stopped, if it is not acknowledged that the persecution of Christians is the first worldwide emergency in the matter of violence and religious discrimination, the dialogue between religions will only produce beautiful conferences but no concrete results,” Introvigne said according to Zenit.org.

Introvigne wrote an article for the Center for Studies on New Religions website that explained more behind the numbers. The statistics came from the late David B. Barrett and the Center for Study of Global Christianity.

Barrett and Todd M. Johnson said from AD 30 to 2000, 70 million Christians died as martyrs. The majority of those martyrs were not in ancient times. There were 45 million Christian martyrs in the 20th century. Introvigne emphasized these figures “exclude those killed for national, ethnic or political reasons who just happened to be Christian but were not killed because of their being Christian.”

Barrett and Johnson’s figures attribute 31.6 million of those 70 million Christian martyrs to atheist persecutors. Muslims killed another 9.1 million Christians.

When is the United Nations going to do something about the persecution of Christians throughout the world? 

History shows that believers faced death at the hands of both Muslims and atheists.

Unfortunately for the “free thinkers” living in Muslim-dominated countries, Islam does not teach forgiveness and compassion. Their faith teaches conversion and obedience…and death to the infidels.

Until He Comes,

KJ

America 2013: How Did We Get Here…and How Do We Get Back?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

conservative1In my post on Thursday, I promised to devote some time this week to explore America’s cultural and societal decline.

Well…there’s no time like the present.

As I mentioned in my 1000th Blog a couple of months ago, I have been told that I am out of touch with America’s present societal and cultural norms…that I am an anachronism…a throwback to an earlier era.

That got me to thinking: How did we get to where we are?

I started First Grade in 1963. Also in 1963, a very important case was brought before the Supreme Court by a bitter, old atheist named Madalyn Murray O’Hair:

School prayer was the focus of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, a militant left wing atheist with close ties to the American Communist Party, when she filed a lawsuit against the school board of Baltimore. The local court judge, J. Gilbert Pendergast, dismissed the petition stating, “It is abundantly clear that petitioners’ real objective is to drive every concept of religion out of the public school system.” The case went to the Maryland Court of Appeals, and the court ruled, “Neither the First nor the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to stifle all rapport between religion and government.”

The “School Prayer” case then made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Leonard Kerpelman addressed the court saying prayer in the public schools had been tolerated for so long that it had become traditional and that anything that is unconstitutional does not become constitutional through tradition. He went on to say the Constitution had erected a “wall of separation” between church and state, at which point Justice Potter Steward interrupted, asking where this wording appears. Kerpelman was stumped and an embarrassing silence followed. When he regained his composure, he stated that the text was not explicit on the point but that it had been interpreted to mean so.

Remarkably, the National Council of Churches and several Jewish organizations favored Madalyn O’Hair’s case! Not a single Christian organization filed a brief in support of school prayer. The Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in favor of abolishing school prayer and Bible reading in the public schools. Justice Tom Clark wrote, “Religious freedom, it has long been recognized that government must be neutral and, while protecting all, must prefer none and disparage none.” The federal government considers atheism to be a religion, and this Supreme Court ruling favored atheism, at the expense of the Christian majority.

Down here in Dixie, we still pray at school functions…and that fact drives that idiotic bunch of atheists up in the Great White North, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, absolutely nuts. So much so, that they have made it their mission in life, to sue every school that dares have any sort of prayer at any event, on campus or off.

The FFRF has achieved a modicum of success in our court system. However, at least in the South, school organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian Students and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes are still flourishing.

On a side note, I am proud to have helped raise a step-son, who was the head of both of these organizations at his high school, and is now in seminary.

I remember back in elementary school, every morning we began school by singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” and then, reciting The Pledge of Allegiance. Even remembering that ritual today, I find comfort in it.

In the South, at least in the Mississippi County in which I live, the school day still begins with the recitation of the Pledge, which is led by a group of students, standing around a microphone in the Principal’s Office.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case in many schools around our blessed land.

Nowadays, good old-fashioned American Patriotism is not considered Politically Correct.

So, what is the cause of this 180 degree turn from where we were, as a mostly cohesive society, based on love of God and Country, which I remember so fondly from my childhood, to where we are now as a country comprised, to a certain extent,  of individuals, who believe in relative morality, situational ethics, and a malleable Constitution.

Learned individuals have been trying to discern exactly what has caused this Societal and Cultural Decline, and in the process, they have blamed it on everything from poor schools to poverty to malnutrition.

Being a simple man, (Hey, that would make a great title for a rock song. Oh, wait. It was. Never mind.) I believe that because Americans have wanted, for at least 3 generations now, to give their children everything materialistically possible, they have to a great extent, ignored their children’s spirituality.

God’s Word tells us that we, as parents, should

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)

The dissolution of the American family and the pressure on parents to provide for their children, has certainlty contributed to Americans’ priorities getting waaay out-of-whack.

Instead of training our children in the way they should go, we have, as a society, allowed the television, video games, government-run schools, and our children’s peers to be their surrogate parents.

The selfish hedonism we are witnessing in our country is a direct result of parents abandoning their roles, as the spiritual and ethical teachers of morality to their children.

So, now the Obama Administration is stepping in to fulfill the Parental Role.

An action, which will, most certainly, make a bad situation worse.

After all, as President Ronald Reagan used to say,

The scariest nine words in the English Language are, “I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.”

Americans need to rediscover our Christian Heritage of Love of God and Country, before it is too late.

Until He Comes,

KJ

One Nation Under God, Being Divided

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

American ChristianityThe primary focus of the nation for the last couple of weeks has been the efforts of Obama and his sycophants to, literally, restrict the Second Amendment rights of average, law-Abiding Americans.

But, what about the 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.

Americans are concerend about those rights as well, under the Second Regime of the Manchurian President.

The Christian Post reports…

Millions of American adults, particularly Protestants and evangelicals, feel religious freedoms have grown worse in the last decade in the United States, and foresee further restrictions in the years to come, according to the results of a new study.

Slightly more than half of adults say they are very (29 percent) or somewhat (22 percent) concerned that religious freedom in the U.S. will become more restricted in the next five years, shows the research conducted by Calif.-based Barna Group in partnership with Clapham Group.

The study, released Friday and which included 1,008 adults from across the religious spectrum, representing the nation’s population from the most active to the most skeptical, shows that those who are religious are more concerned than those who aren’t.

Looking at religious groups separately, the survey found that 71 percent of evangelicals, 46 percent of practicing Protestants, and 30 percent of practicing Catholics are “very concerned” about this prospect.

Concerns are not only over the future of religious freedom, but also about the current level of restraints, the study shows. Among practicing Protestants, 48 percent say they perceive freedom of religion to have grown worse in recent years, while 60 percent of evangelicals perceive religious freedoms to have grown worse.

“The simple fact is that America is becoming more religiously diverse,” said David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group.

“This trend includes growth of faiths other than Christianity, increasing expressions of Christianity beyond white Protestantism, and the growth of the no-faith segment – the so-called religiously unaffiliated,” he added. “These social changes create increasing tension about how something everyone essentially agrees on – freedom of religion – ought to work itself out in the real world where people find themselves disagreeing on important matters.”

The study suggests there is widespread agreement on what “religious freedom” means. About 90 percent of Americans agreed with the statement, “True religious freedom means all citizens must have freedom of conscience, which means being able to believe and practice the core commitments and values of your faith.”

Yet, many controversial aspects of religious liberty are emerging, with most Americans subscribing to “us-versus-them narratives.”

More than half of Americans (57 percent) believe “religious freedom has become more restricted in the U.S. because some groups have actively tried to move society away from traditional Christian values.” This opinion is more common among practicing Catholics (62 percent) and Protestants (76 percent) and is nearly a universal perception among evangelicals (97 percent).

Slightly more than 31 percent of Americans believe “the gay and lesbian community is the most active group trying to remove Christian values from the country.” Those who believe so include practicing Protestants (42 percent), practicing Catholics (32 percent), and evangelicals (72 percent).On values that should dominate America’s vision for the future, there is a substantial difference of opinion, the study found.

In fact, an accomplished Man of God was bounced from Obama’s Second Inauguration tomorrow, because he was not politically correct enough. Karen Gushta, in an Op Ed for the Christian Post, writes that

Pastor Louie Giglio, known for his work on human trafficking, had been tapped to deliver the benediction. But whenThinkProgress.com, a media outlet for the George Soros funded Center for American Progress, reported that Giglio had preached a “rabidly anti-LGBT” sermon in the mid-1990s, the inaugural committee quickly distanced itself, stating that it wasn’t aware of Giglio’s past comments when they invited him.

Giglio immediately withdrew from the inauguration, noting in his letter to the White House that “the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration.” The spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee said, “As we now work to select someone to deliver the benediction, we will ensure their beliefs reflect this administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans.”

The question Christians are now asking is whether that “inclusion and acceptance” will include them.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote on his blog (AlbertMohler.com 1/10/2013):Louie Giglio was cast out of the circle of the acceptable simply because a liberal watchdog group found one sermon he preached almost twenty years ago. If a preacher has ever taken a stand on biblical conviction, he risks being exposed decades after the fact. Anyone who teaches at any time, to any degree, that homosexual behavior is a sin is now to be cast out….The Presidential Inaugural Committee and the White House have now declared historic, biblical Christianity to be out of bounds, casting it off the inaugural program as an embarrassment.

In discussing Giglio’s withdrawal with OneNewsNow (1/12/2013) Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins said that it is shocking how intolerant the administration is in forcing acceptance of homosexuality. “This isn’t the inauguration of another four years,” said Perkins. “I’m afraid this is the inauguration of a new era of religious intolerance in America.”

Four years ago, Pastor Rick Warren’s selection to give the invocation at President Obama’s first inaugurationignited “fury from same-sex marriage advocates and progressives.” (Christianity Today, 12/23/2008).Nevertheless, he gave the invocation as planned.

A lot has changed in four years.

Warren himself recently spoke out on the issue of religious freedom in a statement for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is handling seven of the cases against the Health and Human Services Department mandate requiring abortifacients and contraceptives to be included in insurance coverage:

Today, the government has tried to reinterpret the First Amendment from freedom to PRACTICE your religion, to a more narrow freedom to worship, which would limit your freedom to the hour a week you are at a house of worship. This is not only a subversion of the Constitution, it is nonsense. Any religion that cannot be lived out … at home and work, is nothing but a meaningless ritual.”

On January 16, President Obama began his presidential proclamation for Religious Freedom Day with the following:

Foremost among the rights Americans hold sacred is the freedom to worship as we choose. Today, we celebrate one of our Nation’s first laws to protect that right – the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

Later the proclamation states:

Because of the protections guaranteed by our Constitution, each of us has the right to practice our faith openly and as we choose. [emphasis added]

What are you saying, Mr. President? Is our “practice” of our faith going to be limited to freedom to worship inside our churches and houses of worship, as you punish us for holding to our religious beliefs on Monday through Saturday at our places of work and as we speak out on public forums?

We pray that God will open your heart and mind to see that unless freedom of religion includes freedom of conscience and freedom to speak the truth as we understand it, there is no freedom of religion in this land. Next Sunday, as you solemnly swear to “faithfully execute the office of President” and to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” may you acknowledge this truth and act accordingly.

What Liberals, Moderates, and even “Libertarians” (the legalize dope kind) don’t seem to understand, is that Christians do not and will not leave our faith at the church door. We carry it with us wherever we go. And, when prompted by the Holy Spirit, knowingly or unknowingly, we act upon it.

John Adams, writing to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts on October 11, 1798 said

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Judging by the attack on it and us by this current president and his sycophants, I would said President Adams was spot on.

Until he comes, 

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Battleground: The National Cathedral

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics6 Comments

gay marriageAs all Americans are aware, one of the hot button issues for the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration, has been the “issue” of Gay Rights. At the forefront of their push is the normalization of gay marriage.

And now, their push has led  to the involvement of our nation’s National Cathedral.

Here is the history of the sixth largest cathedral in the world, courtesy of the National Parks Service:

On January 4, 1792, descriptions from President Washington’s disclosed plan for the “City of Washington, in the district of Columbia” were published in The Gazette of the United States, Philadelphia. Lot “D” was set aside and designated for “A church intended for national purposes, …, assigned to the special use of no particular sect or denomination, but equally open to all.” The National Portrait Gallery now occupies that site. A century later in 1891, a meeting was held to revive plans to build the church intended for national purposes. It was to be a Christian cathedral.

In 1893 the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia was granted a charter from Congress to establish the cathedral and the site on Mount Saint Albans was chosen. Bishop Satterlee chose Frederick Bodley, England’s leading Anglican church architect, as the head architect. Henry Vaughan was selected to be the supervising architect. The building of the cathedral finally started in 1907 with a ceremonial address by President Theodore Roosevelt. When construction of the cathedral resumed after a brief hiatus for World War I, both Bodley and Vaughan had passed away; American architect Philip Hubert Frohman took over the design of the cathedral and is known as the principal architect. The Cathedral has been the location of many significant events, including the funeral services of Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower. Its pulpit was the last one from which Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke prior to his assassination. The Cathedral is the burial place of many notable people, including Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller, Admiral George Dewey, Bishop Satterlee and the architects Henry Vaughan and Philip Frohman.

ABC News reported that

The wedding bells will chime in the 106-year-old Washington National Cathedral as Rev. Gary Hall affirmed that, effective immediately, same-sex weddings may be celebrated at the Cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in the northwest quadrant of Washington D.C.

The National Cathedral has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors and held both celebrations and funerals for U.S. presidents past.

In August 2012, the church approved the ceremonial use of a rite adapted from an existing blessing ceremony to acknowledge same-sex marriage. The Episcopal Church will be among the first to recognize marriage for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples.

“For more than 30 years, the Episcopal Church has prayed and studied to discern the evidence of God’s blessing in the lives of same-sex couples,” Rev. Gary Hall of the National Cathedral said. “We enthusiastically affirm each person as a beloved child of God—and doing so means including the full participation of gays and lesbians in the life of this spiritual home for the nation.”

The District of Columbia and Maryland (as well as eight other states) have adopted the legality of civil marriage for same-sex couples. The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, whose Episcopal Diocese of Washington includes D.C. as well as four counties in Maryland, decided this December to follow suit expanding the sacrament of marriage to same-sex couples in her diocese as well.

But the decision to institute the same-sex rite at the Washington National Cathedral was ultimately made by Hall who serves as the Cathedral’s dean.

“In my 35 years of ordained ministry, some of the most personally inspiring work I have witnessed has been among gay and lesbian communities where I have served.”

Hall continued, “I consider it a great honor to lead this Cathedral as it takes another historic step toward greater equality—and I am pleased that this step follows the results made clear in this past November’s election, when three states voted to allow same-sex marriage.”

The same-sex weddings that will be conducted at the Cathedral will fulfill the same role as Christian marriages. Eligibility to marry in the National Cathedral follows the protocol of the Christian faith.

At least one of the members in the couple must have been baptized and the couple must be active, contributing members of the congregation unless otherwise specified by the dean.

Another one of our nation’s symbolic structures, the Chapel at West Point Academy,  is already hosting gay marriages.

Additionally, on December 7th, 2012, USA Today reported

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up the explosive issue of same-sex marriage, thrusting itself into a policy debate that has divided federal and state governments and courts, as well as voters in nearly 40 states.

The high court’s long-awaited decisions to hear challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage move the issue to the top of the national agenda following a year in which advocates scored major legal and political victories.

The court likely will hear the cases in March and rule by late June on a series of questions, potentially including one of the most basic: Can states ban gay marriage, or does the Constitution protect that right for all couples? It also will decide whether gay and lesbian married couples can be denied federal benefits received by opposite-sex spouses.

As all this is happening, the majority of “national” polls tell us that around 53% of Americans approve of Adam and Steve getting hitched.

However, you know what puzzles me? 

If that’s true, shouldn’t the majority of Americans have voted for it in previous state elections?

Instead, 41 states do not recognize gay marriages. Gays can only legally reside as husband and…err…husband, or wife and…ummm…wife in only 9 states.

Even California, a bastion of Liberal ideology, voted it down, only to have a Liberal judge overturn the voters’ decision.

First West Point, now the National Cathedral. I see a pattern of Political Propaganda and Government-backed and forced, secular Liberal ideology growing here.

Reminds me of Obamacare…and, we all know how that turned out.

Until He Comes,

KJ