Tag: God

The War Against Christianity: Religious Freedom and Liberal Intolerance

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

 

American Christianity 2Every now and then, politicians will surprise you.

Foxnews.com reports that

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Saturday condemned the Obama administration’s use of “coercive federal power” to limit religious freedom as he courted Christian conservatives at a Liberty University commencement ahead of a likely presidential run. 

Charging that “the Christian voice” isn’t heard enough in the world, the Republican White House prospect lashed out at the Democratic president’s administration for “demanding obedience in complete disregard of religious conscience.” 

“The present administration is supporting the use of coercive federal power. What should be easy calls in favor of religious freedom have instead become an aggressive stance against it,” Bush told an estimated 34,000 gathered for a graduation ceremony. 

“Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn’t the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith,” he said. Bush was speaking inside a packed football stadium at Liberty University, an institution founded by the late conservative culture warrior, Rev. Jerry Falwell. 

Bush, a converted Catholic, is preparing to enter a Republican primary contest that includes Republican competitors considered far more popular with the GOP’s religious right. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz formally announced his presidential campaign at Liberty University last month. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry have all made their Christian faith a centerpiece of prospective campaigns. 

All have aggressively condemned Obama’s health care overhaul which requires some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control. The measure is among several examples of what Republicans charge is Obama’s attack on religious liberty. 

“How strange, in our own time, to hear Christianity spoken of as some sort of backward and oppressive force,” Bush said. “Your generation is bringing the Christian voice to where it always is needed, and sometimes isn’t heard enough.” 

Despite nagging questions about Bush’s conservative credentials, Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. noted that Bush was considered a hero among social conservatives as Florida governor. He fought to keep Michael Schiavo from removing the feeding tube from his brain-damaged wife, Terri. Leaders in the anti-abortion movement still praise Bush today. 

And in a reminder that his path to the presidency depends upon moderate and independents perhaps as much as conservatives, Bush concluded his remarks with a message for non-Christians. 

“In my experience, at least, you generally find the same good instincts, fair-mindedness, and easygoing spirit among Americans of every type — including, of course, the many who belong to no church at all,” he said. 

Democrats were paying close attention to Bush’s remarks. 

“Jeb Bush will not win over any Virginia voters with his close-minded pandering to the right wing,” said Morgan Finkelstein, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Virginia. “By supporting the Indiana discrimination law and attacking women’s reproductive rights, Bush places himself firmly at odds with Virginia values.

Oh, bull.

While Jeb Bush is definitely not my Presidential Candidate of Choice, he was spot on in his remarks, yesterday.

The Moral Compass of America’s Liberal Leadership and their sycophantic minions, in both the Main Stream Media and the “New Media” (i.e., the Internet) and their “foot soldiers”, has been pointing in the wrong direction for quite a while, now.

Halfway around the world, in the Radical Muslim Rogue Nation of Iran, an American Pastor, jailed for preaching the Word of God, and refusing to worship a pedophile, sits languishing in horrible conditions, while his wife and children petition our leaders to get up off their duffs and bring him home.

Meanwhile, The President of the United States of America and his Secretary of State, instead of demanding this American Clergyman’s immediate release, are instead, acquiescing to the wishes of this Rogue Nation, and have set a timeline for them to have the capability to build the means of the nuclear destruction of the United States of America.

In Iraq, Christians and innocent Muslims are being killed by barbarians who have sworn to hoist their flag above our White House.

Nationally, America’s economy remains in the tank, with more and more Americans choosing to drop out of the work force, in disgust and humiliation. 37.8% of America’s Work Force, to be exact.

A lot of these “drop-outs” are Americans over 50, like myself, who are being intentionally ignored, because of our age, which seems to matter more than our business acumen and wealth of experience.

While Americans are being battered about, both in foreign lands and here, in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, our Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case which, depending on their ruling, could change the very definition of the word “marriage”, a word which has meant the same thing for thousands of years.

Meanwhile, we are being assured by the smartest people in the room that legalizing marijuana has no consequences. So what if elementary school kids are being caught selling their parents stash? And, DUI accidents are up?

Yep. No consequences at all.

The very fabric of our society is being torn asunder, through the dissipation of morality and the glorification of evil.

Satanists, Vampires, and Zombies…oh, my!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, our parents, family, and friends can make a difference in our journey and, on this Mother’s Day 2015, I thank God that through His Grace, I was given a Mother and Father who made sure that I received loving instruction in The Way in which I should go.

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

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

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

Until He Comes,

KJ

America Vs. the Far Left: A War Against Fascism

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

white-house-youth-corpsI have written. time and time again, about the Culture War, which is taking place in America.

Boys and Girls, it is not just a “Culture War”. We are battling a war against Government-sponsored FASCISM.

TheHill.com reports that

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday said Democrats had gone to extremes in their persecution of Christians.

“Today’s Democratic Party has decided there is no room for Christians in today’s Democratic Party,” he said at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition summit in Waukee, Iowa.

“There is a liberal fascism that is going after Christian believers,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate continued.

“It is heartbreaking,” Cruz argued. “But it is so extreme, it is waking people up.”

Cruz said same-sex marriage had produced rabid zealotry in Democratic ranks. This ideology, he argued, was excluding people of faith.

“Today’s Democratic Party has become so radicalized for legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states that there is no longer any room for religious liberty,” he said.

The Texas lawmaker said this stance was against America’s traditional values. Religious liberty, Cruz claimed, was one of the nation’s founding principles.

“We were founded by men and women fleeing religious persecution,” Cruz declared.

“We need leaders who will stand unapologetically in defense of the Judeo-Christian values upon which America was built,” he concluded.

Cruz, a long-time opponent of same-sex marriage, seemingly softened his tone on gay rights earlier this week.

The White House hopeful reportedly said Monday evening he would still accept one of his daughters if they became a lesbian.
 
The Texas lawmaker was the first official entrant into the 2016 election cycle.

He so far will face Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) for their party’s nomination.

My late father was one of thousands of brave young American men, who landed on the beaches of Normandy , France on June 6, 1944, in the military operation which broke the backs of the Nazis, leading to the end of World War II,  now known as D-Day.

World War II was in a war against Fascism.

What is Fascism? Per merriam-webster.com, it is a

political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

Ladies and gentlemen, I firmly believe that America is now fighting a new war against fascism.

It’s not a war that is being fought fought with guns and bullets, But instead with state referendums, Congressional votes, Executive Orders, and judicial activism.

And, it’s not our Brightest and Best who are dying on this field of battle, but rather, it is our Constitutional Freedoms which are dying an ignoble death, pierced by the arrows of socialism and political correctness.

By now, there’s some out there in the audience saying, “Oh Lord, the crazy old cracker’s overreacting again.”

No, Skippy, I’m not.

If you try to talk to a Liberal about this New Fascism, they will deny that there is any Fascism going on at all. In fact, they will tell you that this is “the will of the people” and they will site Democratically-stacked push polls in order to back their opinion up.

When you ask Liberals if , for example, “homosexual marriage” is the “will of the people”, why did voters in the overwhelming majority of states, including California, vote against it? And, if there is “no Fascism”, what do you call the fact that 2% of the population is having activist judges overturn the actual will of the people in order to get their way, in their attempt to redefine a word that has meant the same thing since time immemorial?

In response, you will usually see their eyes glaze over, like a deer in the headlights, or experience a dramatic pause in posting, if you are on the Internet.

Liberals can not legitimately defend the suppression of the First Amendment Rights of Christian Americans.

Fascism, in any form, remains indefensible, even, when a spineless Supreme Court kicks the can down the road.

The Godfather of Conservative Talk Radio, Rush Limbaugh, once said the following,

You know as well as I do that people are scared to death to tell you what they really think. The left has politicized everything — everything — to the point that people are afraid to go against what they know to be political correctness, which is nothing more than liberal fascism, nothing more than censorship.

When Barack Hussein Obama assumed the position of President of the United States, the Far Left became empowered. Obama’s handlers saw the opportunity to “radically change” America into a Democratic Socialist Republic. You know, the kind of government that is currently failing over in Europe.

Every piece of legislation that Barack Hussein Obama has tried to get passed, has been designed to either overtly or covertly limit our freedom.

From the stimulus bill on through the latest changes to Obamacare by Executive Order, every single piece of legislation has been designed to further the Far Left’s agenda.

Remember when Obama was campaigning so hard to get the Affordable Health Care Act passed?

He always used people as props for his speeches, whether it was just normal people or people dressed in white coats like doctors.

When he was trying to get gun control passed, he used the parents from the Newtown Massacre in Connecticut as human props to try to get his repressive agenda passed.

The use of human props is an old propaganda trick, which was used by Joseph Goebbels to make his boss Adolf Hitler seem like a man of the people who really cared about the German citizenry.

The use of propaganda to further the aims of fascist governments is an old and effective method of camouflaging fascism, which Obama’s handlers realize all too well.

In addition to the use of human props during a speech, another strategy used in a propaganda campaign is to select an enemy and target them with the aid of a sympathetic press behind you.

During Hitler’s rise to power, the German Press demonized European Jews, betraying them as evil and money grubbing…painting them as being different from normal German citizens. It was this classification of the European Jews as the enemy that almost led to the extinction of them in that horrible attempted genocide, known as the Holocaust.

Now, in the early 21st century, the Far Left, the Democratic Party, and the Obama Administration (but, I repeat myself) are using propaganda to isolate and demonize average Americans, who through hard work, have risen to a high station in life or through their strong Christian faith and love of their country refuse to follow a popular culture- worshiping Administration, when it issues Executive Orders or has its Democratic Congress pass legislation which clearly contradicts the Word of God and the Judeo-Christian Belief System upon which America was built.

If America keeps on the path we seem to be headed on, we will find out why America is not mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools. – Romans 1 : 22

Until He Comes,

KJ

Atheist and Progressive Activists: The Tyranny of the Minority

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

American Christianity 2On this blessed Easter Weekend in my hometown, a bitter minority has purposefully scheduled a convention, to gain attention and to rail against “Someone” whom they claim NOT to believe in.

LocalMemphis.com has the story…

While the country debates the religious freedom bills, one of the biggest anti-religious groups is having their convention in the Bluff City.

American Atheists kicked off their convention with a panel discussion Wednesday evening. About a thousand atheists are expected to attend the event set in the heart of the Bible Belt.

“We come to Memphis, we come to the Bible Belt very deliberately because people assume that Memphis is a Christian city full of Christian people, and they feel oppressed by the Christian majority here”, said the President of the American Atheists, David Silverman.

It’s almost ironic that this convention of non-believers is happening just a short distance from the battle that’s brewing in Arkansas. As Americans go head to head over the debate of the Religious Freedom law that was just vetoed by the governor.

“Of course, religion divides this country. It is the most divisive force in this country, more than politics”, said Silverman.

Atheists certainly bring a unique perspective to the argument that certain services can be denied to people based solely upon someone’s religious beliefs.

“When the government comes in and says okay, if you’re religious you can skip out on these laws, but if you’re not religious you have to obey these laws. It is religious discrimination from the government”, said Silverman.

The American Atheists National Convention will be held at the Peabody Hotel through Sunday.

Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh spoke about a related story…

Such great news out of Indiana. Memories Pizza shut down by a mob of probably 10 to 15, maybe at the outside 20 people, who have found a way to make themselves look like they are thousands. Not just thousands of people, but angry, outraged, and they happen to represent the majority of Americans, don’t you know. That’s BS squared.Ten to 15 people toying around with algorithms available on Twitter that they actually created with the assistance of people that know Twitter well, and they’re able to create tweets, Facebook posts, e-mails to make it look like thousands of Americans are outraged at this harmless, barely even noticeable little pizza shop in a town of 2,000.

And, again, the story, ladies and gentlemen, is not that an infobabe from an obscure ABC affiliate in South Bend has to leave South Bend 20 miles away, go knocking on doors shopping for bigotry, and finally they open the door and a young woman who is a devout Christian is there. She thinks there’s a media person at the door who wants to really know what she thinks.

She’s like everybody else with their first encounter with the media. Why, there’s the media. There’s a camera, a microphone, some guy holding it up, and there’s the really pretty reporterette, and they must really want to know what I think. They must really be concerned with what I think. This young woman had no idea that what walked into her pizzeria was effectively the media mafia. She had no idea that the only reason they walked in that door was to find a way to destroy their business.

Nope. Instead, well, here comes this nice media woman, and she’s asking me questions, and I know they want to know the truth, and so I’m gonna answer their questions honestly. She told them that she had never been asked to serve a gay wedding or cater one, but that if she were to be asked she wouldn’t do it because she opposes gay marriage.

And so the honest, upstanding little reporterette from the obscure ABC affiliate, Channel 57, how obscure can you get, Channel 57. If it weren’t for cable nobody’d be able to pick up that signal, 57 UHF, you’d have to be in an airplane 10,000 feet above it to get the signal straight up. Channel 57?

Anyway, she’s in the store, and she’s got this naive but just brazenly honest young Christian pizzeria owner telling her the truth and the apparently harmless infobabe from the obscure Channel 57 ABC affiliate in South Bend salivates. A-ha! I’ve been knocking on doors for two days looking for a stupid idiot, and I finally found one. She thought she was looking squarely at devil bigot in the case of this young woman, Crystal O’Connor.

So she got Crystal O’Connor on tape, and then she walks out and gleefully applauds, can’t believe her good luck, all of her hard work knocking on doors looking for a bigot. And after 20 miles and who knows how many hours, she found one, and she’s thinking, this is my ticket out of the obscure Channel 57 in South Bend. If I can destroy this woman, maybe I’ll get noticed by the big network honchos in New York. She proceeded to report this little pizza shop, Memories Pizza, a home of open bigots, racists, homophobes, wouldn’t serve a gay wedding even though they’d never been asked.

…They’re a little pizza store, not bothering anybody, not threatening anybody, not doing anything but just living and breathing and trying to serve their community.  The next thing you know, they are the focus of evil in a bigoted, homophobic country?  Not so fast!  The people of this country are rising up.  By the way, this is not the first time for this.  

There was an African-American arts and crafts store owner who had her store totally destroyed in one of the riots in another fake news story, “hands up, don’t shoot,” in Ferguson, Missouri.  A GoFundMe account was set up, and that woman raised donations from people — white people — all over America, far more than she needed to rebuild and reopen her store.  So it’s still your same old righteous, God-fearing, God-loving country.  And that is what so angers this small malcontent minority on the left.  

They have found a trick way to make themselves appear to be much larger than they really are, and don’t doubt me on this.  We’ve investigated it because they’ve come after us — and they continue to come after us and our sponsors — for years now.  We’ve researched them. We know their names.  We know who the 10 people are in our case.  We know where they live.  We know the algorithm they’re using.  

We know exactly how they make this happen.  So don’t doubt me on this.  If they can do it in one area, they can do it in any other area. I think all this stuff that happens, all these Twitter explosions, are fake.  You have got to trust that.  You have not lost your country.  We have not lost our country.  Now it’s true we’re in a defensive posture. We sit around and mind our business, and when we’re attacked and assaulted we do on occasion stand up and defend ourselves.  

We are very absent political leadership in Washington.  That’s also true, and I’m not saying that this is not a problem.  It is.  I’m just telling you that if you’re running around thinking, “Oh, my gosh, we’ve lost the country,” we haven’t.  Don’t think that.  Breitbart has a story today — NewsBusters has carried it as well — that the pizza store was asking for it.  Breitbart: “Memories Pizza is an explicitly Christian business, which is probably what drew reporters in the first place. The store is festooned with religious sayings including this: 

“‘Every day before we open the store, we gather and pray together. If there is something you would like us to pray for, just write it down and drop it in the box and we will pray for you.'” Well, those hateful bastards! How dare they! Do you realize that’s a direct assault? That’s a direct assault from a majority bunch of Christians on people who aren’t!  That’s hateful (in the cockeyed, perverted world of the left).  Not only is that hateful, it’s threatening.  

Offering to pray for the godless?  

Who do they think they are!  

So this obscure reporterette from the obscure Channel 57 in South Bend, Indiana, probably didn’t have to hear anything from Crystal O’Connor. They just had to go and see that sign and say, “A-ha! I’ve got a Christian bigot here.  Why this hateful Christian bigot wants to pray for me?  Ha-ha.  What a bunch of idiots.” And then she thought that, “Well, I’m in this pizzeria and they want to pray for me?  I am surrounded by hate!” That is the perverted way they look at it.  

Daily Caller: “Salon: Pizzeria Closed After Death Threats ‘Getting Exactly What It Deserved.'” Salon.com says this pizzeria getting death threats deserves it — and now there are threats to burn it down!  There are tweets from people asking to be joined in a mission to go to Indiana, find this place, and burn it to the ground.  Salon is applauding this, saying the pizzeria is “getting exactly what it deserved.”  The tweet, by the way, is now deleted.  

“Salon’s Twitter account gloated over the closure of ‘anti-LGBT’ pizza shop: “‘That anti-LGBT pizza shop in Indiana is getting exactly what it deserves.'” I think, frankly, I agree with them now: Over a half million dollars in donations. Memories Pizza is getting exactly what they deserve, an uprising and outpouring of support and love from a majority of the American people who are outraged at these never-ending, incessant attacks on decent, good people who threaten nobody.  Some leftist dingbats have even threatened to steal the GoFundMe money.  

There are people on Twitter who are hatching plans to figure out how to rob them of this money.  I’m not kidding it.  NewsBusters has a roundup: “A tweeted wish to organize a group to burn the store down… A separate threat to the GoFundMe organizer who has a [sic] orchestrated a campaign which has raised over [$500,000] … and, to top it off, another threat, by someone who now laughably claims he was hacked, to steal from the O’Connors the money that has been raised.” 

People who have publicly encouraged donations to this GoFundMe account are also now being personally threatened.  We are to believe that this is justified? The Drive-By Media tells us that this family, the O’Connor family, is “getting exactly what it deserves”? Threats to burn down the pizza store, threats to rob them of the GoFundMe money? They deserve it? This is exactly what they deserve?  

There’s a political party, folks, that inspires and encourages this hate.  There’s a political party that rewards it.  There’s a political party that encourages it and claims that it will be rewarded, and that’s the Democrat Party.  These are not Republicans doing this; these are not conservatives doing this.  The people doing this are not the backbone of America.

The people engaged in this sick, perverted behavior, are not in any way, shape, manner, or form the people upon whose backs this country was built.  Admittedly so.  They’re trying to tear it down.  They’re outraged.  I just think it’s fantastic.  I love all of you who have donated.

I have never understood Atheists, especially the so-called activists among them.

Our Constitution provides for Freedom of Religion.

According to the Supreme Court, in their Ruling abolishing School Prayer, Atheism is a religion, which the Americans who embrace this nihilism are free to practice.

So, why are Atheist Activists continuously launching a full-blown attack on the Faith which our Founding Fathers wrote so eloquently about, and which has sustained this “shining city on a hill” through times of internal and external strife?

In other words, why are activist Atheists (and Progressives) so intent to either limit or completely eliminate Christianity’s influence on everyday American Life?

Why can’t they be content with their freedom to practice their own Religion?

Why don’t they attack the political/religious ideology of Islam with the same fervor?

The answer to this question is simple: Cowards will always tell you whom they are afraid of. They will avoid them, like one avoids a child with Chicken Pox.

Additionally, they expect Christians to allow them to take control by “turning the other cheek.” Evidently, they never read the scriptures which describe Jesus running the “money lenders” out of the temple, overturning tables, and expressing his righteous indignation in a way in which no one could mistake it for anything else.

A modern-day example is the resounding blowback to the hypocritical fascism being displayed by Progressives regarding their lie-driven mission to legalize “gay marriage”.

Perhaps, their quixotic quest to make life miserable for the 74% of Americans who claim Crist as their Personal Savior stems from the overwhelming overestimation of their own intelligence, which results from ignoring the influence of the God of Abraham in their own life.

So, what drives them in this “Unholy Crusade”?

Bitterness, emptiness, and an unfulfilled hungering in their soul which they cannot put a finger on, is the only explanation.

Otherwise, why would you fight so hard against the influence of and worship of Someone you claim not to believe in?

Until He Comes,

KJ

New York High School Kids Recite The Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic. Why That Was Wrong.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

 

pledgeofallegiance

Have you heard what happened in Upstate New York earlier this week?

The Times Herald-Record reported that

An effort to celebrate national Foreign Language Week by reading the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic Wednesday has polarized Pine Bush High School into angry factions.

The morning’s regularly scheduled announcements included the Arabic reading of the pledge. According to students, the announcement was greeted by catcalls and angry denunciations in classrooms throughout the school by students who felt the reading was inappropriate.

The reading became the subject of angry talk throughout the school and a cascade of tweets both from students who criticized the reading and those who supported it.

The controversy has “divided the school in half,” according to school Superintendent Joan Carbone. She described the reading as “something that was supposed to be good but turned out not to be.”

Early Wednesday afternoon, high school Principal Aaron Hopmayer made a building-wide announcement explaining the reading’s context and apologizing to students who took offense.

The apology appears to have done little to quell the situation; it may, in fact, have fueled resentment from students who feel the reading was appropriate.

Carbone said she had received complaints from district residents who had lost family members in Afghanistan and from Jewish parents who were equally outraged by the reading.

Pine Bush is no stranger to controversy. In 2013, Jewish parents sued the district and administrators in federal court, accusing them of being indifferent to chronic anti-Semitic behavior.

Carbone said she has learned that state Education Department regulations specifically say the Pledge of Allegiance should be read in English.

Students on both sides of the issue took to Twitter to voice their feelings. Said one, “People who don’t like PB should take a vacation. I hear the Middle East is nice this time a year?”

Another student tweeted, “The pledge should always be said in English. They could’ve just said “Good Morning” in a different language each day.”

A student who supported the reading, senior Miranda Monroe, said she felt it was “wrong to discriminate – the whole thing is wrong.”

Andrew Zink, president of the student assembly and senior class president, ordinarily reads the morning announcements. When he was asked to allow the reading to take place in Arabic, he agreed, but added in a telephone interview later, “I knew exactly what would happen.”

“I knew many wouldn’t support it,” he said.

Nevertheless, Zink said he’d do it again, “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

No. It’s not.

Why would an average American High-Schooler feel this way?

Simple. This young man has been raised under the freedom-stifling indoctrination of a State Educational System which genuflects to the ideology of Political Correctness.

This ideology preaches that all cultures are equally good, all “religions” lead to God, America is NOT exceptional, and American Patriotism is “jingoistic”.

Oh, and if your parents do not believe this “truth”, you should ignore them….and snitch on them to the authorities…especially if they own a gun.

The multi-headed snake of Political Correctness has been slithering its way into our Popular Culture for years.

However, it really kicked into high gear with the immaculation…err…inauguration of its messiah, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), who has stated that America is “not Just a Christian Nation” and those of us here in the Heartland, are “bitterly clinging to our Bibles and guns”.

Growing up in the Heartland of America, starting in elementary school, every student said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, facing the American Flag in the corner of our classroom with our hands placed firmly over our hearts.

And, I can tell you from first hand experience, that act of allegiance and reverence for our country still takes place every morning in schools across this country, including those here in Mississippi.

Why is this done?

Is it some sort of arcane ritual that has no meaning in this Modern America, where our Liberal politicians preach that diversity is what makes America strong and that the “Melting Pot” image of a unified America is no longer relevant?

Liberals, all over the Internet, have been asking what difference does it make that these kids decided to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic?

I’m glad you asked, Libs.

The Pledge of Allegiance is more than just words being said to an inanimate object.

Just as America’s Founding Fathers pledged “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” to one another, as they fought to secure our American Freedom from the forces of tyranny, every time Americans recite our Pledge of Allegiance, we are pledging our loyalty to each other as Americans, and to our country.

This is not a pledge to be taken lightly. This is not a pledge which was designed to be said in the language of our enemies.

This is a pledge which was meant to be said sincerely and said in a way that honors the flag of our country, a symbol which brave men have fought and died for in defense of our liberty.

As I have written before, my friend Johnny McDonald once wrote that “liberty is freedom with responsibility”. Our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance is a pledge of responsibility… a responsibility to keep America “The Shining City on a Hill”… a country where legal immigrants can begin their new lives as Americans…”one nation under God with liberty and justice for all”.

Maybe those High School Students in Upstate New York were never properly explained the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance?  As I take my leave today, America’s Clown Prince, Mr. Richard (Red) Skelton, will explain it, so that even they might understand.  God Bless America!

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

A Baby, a Car Wreck, and…the Voice of an Angel?

On By kingsjesterIn ChristianityLeave a comment

 

American FreedomMiracles happen in this ol’ world everyday. But, none more precious than the one involving an 18-month old baby, earlier this week.

Fox News Insider reported earlier this week that

Incredible new details are emerging about what brought rescuers to a toddler trapped in a car in a frigid river.
UPDATE: Miracle Toddler Goes Home After Surviving Car Crash Into River.

18-month-old Lily Groesbeck was found alive in an overturned car after a crash in which the vehicle plunged into a frigid river in Spanish Fork, Utah.

It was not until 14 hours after the crash that a fisherman stumbled upon the car and alerted emergency personnel.

Ainsley Earhardt reported on “Fox and Friends” that as rescuers rushed down to the car, four police officers all say they heard the same thing: a woman calling out, begging for help.

But they can’t explain who that voice was, because the baby’s mother, 25-year-old Lynn Groesbeck, was killed in the crash hours before, and the voice they heard was too mature to be the toddler.

“When we all talked together, I said, ‘Was I the only one that was hearing this?’ thinking that I was hearing things,” Tyler Beddoes, one of the officers who rescued the toddler, explained. “And when I talked to the other officers, we all had heard the same thing, a voice saying, ‘Help us. Help me.'”

Another officer described the same thing to Deseret News. 

“We’ve gotten together and just talk about it and all four of us can swear that we heard somebody inside the car saying, ‘Help,’” said Officer Jared Warner.

The officers say that the calls for help pushed them to work even harder to flip the car over.

When they righted the partially submerged vehicle, they were shocked to find the mother dead and the toddler alive

“We were just able to push the car onto its side. How, I don’t know, whether it’s adrenaline or what. But it was incredible,” officer Bryan Dewitt said. “As I grabbed the little baby out of the car seat, as I pulled her head up, I could tell that there was some life in her. I could see her eyes open.”

Lily is in the hospital recovering, and her family says she’s going to be OK.

Police are still trying to figure out what caused the accident. They do not suspect drugs or alcohol as a factor, but are awaiting toxicology test results.

Several of the rescuers who jumped into the freezing waters had to be treated for hypothermia.

Do 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 travelers. 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 television 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.

Even though 75% of us Americans still proclaim Jesus Christ as our Personal Savior, and 92% of us believe in God, per Gallup, there are still those among us, both believers and non-believers, who have trouble accepting a supernatural event may have occurred in the rescue of that precious baby.

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 our sins can make them complete, and wash them white as snow.

The story of the miracle of this recused infant 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 Inner Voice, that voice that the rescuers heard, was sent by God.

What do you believe?

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

Internet Trolls: A Reflection of Our Political Reality [A KJ Op Ed]

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

internet trollIt’s amazing how websites are a reflection of our Political Reality.

Every website and Facebook Page, where there is political discussion, unless they are just Pro-one-way-or-the-other, puts out a plea for civil discourse in the discussions that happen between commenters on their site.

Unfortunately, though, that never seems to happen. And, why is that?

If you are an Internet – Surfing Political Junkie like me, at some time or another, you have no doubt run into an aggravating, bitter, whiney individual, commonly referred to as an “Internet Troll”.

In America, most Internet Trolls belong to the Liberal Political Ideology (whether they admit it, or not).

In our American culture today, the art of civil discourse has degenerated into a shouting match. This wouldn’t be so bad, if both sides had the right to shout equally as loud as the other side.

The problem is, for some reason, Conservatives are expected to mind our manners, be meek and mild, and follow the Marquis of Queensbury rules, while Liberals, libertarians, and self-identified “Moderates” (Social Liberals) call us everything but a child of God.

However, this doesn’t just happen on the Internet, this happens in the Real World as well… and it all starts with the President of the United States and trickles down from there.

Before Obama became President, in a private fund raiser in Pennsylvania, he referred to us American Conservatives as bitter clingers, clinging to our guns and Bibles. Then, the Main Stream Media, totally in love with their new messiah, told everyone who would listen, that if you did not vote for Barack Hussein Obama as President, you are a racist.

When Conservatives started to dig up historical facts about Obama, we told by those whom I identified to sit down, shut up, and know “our role” or “stay in our lane”.

After Obama was elected, and the country started to find out just exactly who he was, Conservatives started to speak out again. Again, we were told to sit down, shut up, and know our “role”(stay in our lane).

Finally, we had enough and began a groundswell, which led to the formation of  what has become known as the Tea Party.

The rise of the Tea Party movement and America’s return to Conservatism, which resulted in the political massacre known as the 2010 Midterm Elections, was such a surprise to them. In their self-imposed isolation, they actually thought that the America people wanted them to continue their deal-making, soul-selling, business-as-usual politics.

They were in shock when American Conservatives stood up on their hind legs and gave the House of Representatives back to the Republican Party.

And, you know what happened afterwards?

The Liberal Establishment and their minions, the Internet Trolls, began a relentless Social Media Campaign designed to make American Conservatives, once again, the “Silent Majority”, calling us “racists” for speaking the truth about Barack Hussein Obama, and telling us, once again, to sit down, shut up, know our “role”/”stay in our lane”.

Now, after the recent, overwhelming Political Massacre that transpired on November 6, 2014, with Republicans gaining control of both Houses of Congress, thanks, once again, to the Conservative Base, and, the national resentment of the growing Liberal use of the Rhetoric of Class and Racial Warfare, spurred on by their Petulant President, the Internet Trolls are whining louder than the Civil Defense Siren at Noon on Saturday.

Are you beginning to see a pattern, boys and girls?

Liberal Trolls and their activity on the Internet are simply an extension of our culture at large.

Liberalism has always been a failed political ideology. It has never been embraced by the majority of Americans.

So, in order for Liberals to “get their way” on social issues and national policy, since their ideas are never excepted by the majority of Americans, they must resort to the facilitation of culture change through intimidation, rule by fiat, and via Executive Orders, if they have a president in the White House, who will do their bidding…which has certainly been the case since January 21, 2009.

In other words, Liberal Activists, especially Internet Trolls, are dirty, manipulative, little cowards, who overestimate their power….and, their own intelligence.

You see, Liberal Democrats, including the “Trolling” variety, both paid and unpaid, expect average Conservative Americans to behave like a dog who has been whipped too much, and go cower in a corner and allow them to insult us, and walk all over us in our online “discussions”.

Their expectation of Conservative Behavior is predicated on the fact that they know that we were raised right, usually by two parents, and that the majority of us are Christians, and are reluctant to have an out-of-body experience on an Internet Chat Board or Political Facebook Page, telling them where to go and the temperature when they get there.

Therefore, Liberal Democrats feel as if they can take advantage of the good nature of American Conservatives, and walk all over us.

Well, I’ve got some news for them.

As a Christian American Conservative, I do my best to live my faith, every day.

However, boys and girls, don’t forget… Jesus ran the money changers out of the temple.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Glorifying the Darkness: Michael Brown, Phil Robertson, and Me (A KJ Op Ed)

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

PhilRobertsonCartoon

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)

Back in May, the Patriarch of the Mega-hit Television Program, Duck Dynasty, Phil Robertson sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and, as usual, Brother Phil told it like it is…

…HANNITY: So we got to win those political battles, too. I think they’re just as important.

ROBERTSON: Yes. I just feel a little more comfortable dealing in the spiritual realm, even with the persecution of whatever comes with it, I’m just — I have a task to do and I go forth across America. I’ve been doing this, most people don’t realize, I’ve been doing this for 35 years.

HANNITY: Yeah.

ROBERTSON: I’ve been all over the United States backwards and forwards, and my message is always the same, god loves you, sent Jesus to die for you.

HANNITY: When the controversy arose were you surprised?

ROBERTSON: Surprised, not at all. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you, when they insult you and reject your name as evil, Jesus said, because of the son of man. Leap for joy because great is your reward in heaven. It goes with the territory, spiritual warfare. There is a Satan out there, an evil one, and if anyone that looks at our culture doesn’t believe it, I would simply say, what, are you blind? It’s pretty rough out there.

HANNITY: I wrote a whole book “Deliver Us from Evil.”

ROBERTSON: Yep.

HANNITY: How do you explain Pol Pot and the killing fields, Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, fascism, communism, imperial.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTSON: Evil.

HANNITY: And then how do you explain murder, and pedophilia, and rape – – evil.

ROBERTSON: Yes, yes.

HANNITY: See, when you use these spiritual terms some people get, you can’t say that.

ROBERTSON: We took the 10 commandments now and removing them from the courthouse and we’re getting them out of our psyche. We took God out of our schools. Well, if you started with young people and you taught them, you rebuke them, you corrected them, you trained them, you instructed them to obey their father and mother, honor their father and mother, don’t murder, don’t lie, don’t steal from a young age, is anyone trying to tell me that we wouldn’t have a better society? I mean, it’s nuts.

What causes somebody to “wig out”, or to have what psychiatrists call “a break with reality”? Is it caused by some genetic abnormality? Is it caused by socialization? Or, it Brother Phil right? Does the Devil make them do it?

As I was fulfilling my “Honey Dos”, yesterday, in assisting my bride, the Queen of Christmas, in putting up the tree and all the accouterments which come all with it, I started thinking about the Ferguson Riots and all of the Savagery perpetrated by rioters, paid and unpaid, supposedly in the name of avenging a young thug, who bullied a shop ower and stolle cigarillos, in order to stuff his marijuana in them, before he attack a police officer, attempting to take away his gun, forcing the officer to put him down.

These people were actually defending EVIL in the name of “Civil Rights”!

…And, in a secret meeting on November 5th, they were encouraged by the President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, to “stay the course”!

Brother Phil is right about how widespread evil is in our society.

A short while back, while I was pursuing one of my favorite activities, perusing Facebook to see what was going on, I was on one of my favorite political pages, when I noticed that an anonymous poster had posted an anti- American Armed Forces message, just to get some attention. In fact, this guy was so far around the bend, that he posted that our military deserve to die because of the interventionism and nation-building foreign policy of the United States. When he became cornered and was asked to account factually for his comments on Facebook, this loon even suggested that the Japanese attacked the US Military at Pearl Harbor, because of things they had already done, and bore no ill will toward the American people.  When I asked him whose sons and daughters did he think that the US military consisted of, he went strangely silent.

Of course, this guy wound up getting banned from that Facebook Page. Then he came back under a phony profile, and got banned again.

We later found out that this troubled soul had been banned from several Facebook Pages for posting under phony names, posting incessantly, and threatening female posters.

By now. you’re probably asking, “So what do these two examples have to do with each other and with what Phil Robertson said to Sean Hannity?”

There is a reason that we don’t all go out killing another and there is also a reason why we’re not all fruitcakes who go around looking for attention, threatening people on Facebook.

Now you can call it genetics, you can call it socialization, you can call it the proper alignment of the moon and stars…I choose to call it the Grace of God.

It is a comforting old saying which states

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

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

Whether is in reality or strictly in the close quarters of our own consciousness, the path we choose to follow is up to us. However, our parents, family, and friends can make a difference in our journey and I thank God that through His Grace I was given a Father who made sure that I received loving instruction in The Way in which I should go.

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

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

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

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: WWJD About “Social Justice”?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

American Christianity 2Shortly after I began this blog in April of 2010, I posted the following article.

Over four years later, the content of it is still as timely as it was then, and the struggle to prevent Liberals from rewriting our nation’s history continues….

Friends have asked me if I believe that Christ would be in favor of this “Social Justice” movement that has consumed some churches in America, replacing Christian Doctrine with a Modern Liberal Political Agenda.

In order for you to understand how I and the overwhelming majority of Americans feel about that question, I believe you first need a working knowledge as to whom Jesus was. The following is taken from a blog I wrote on manlyrash.com during Christmas (2009), “The Reason for the Season”

As some of you know, I was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. I now reside in Northwest Mississippi.The following piece was written in 1912 by the editor of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee, C.P.J. Mooney. Since then, it has remained so popular, that the newspaper has published it on their Op Ed page every year at Christmas.

JESUS, THE PERFECT MAN

There is no other character in history like that of Jesus.

As a preacher, as a doer of things, and as a philosopher, no man ever had the sweep and the vision of Jesus.

A human analysis of the human actions of Jesus brings to view a rule of life that is amazing in its perfect detail.

The system of ethics Jesus taught during His Earthly sojourn 2,000 years ago was true then, has been true in every century since and will be true forever.

Plato was a great thinker and learned in his age, but his teachings did not stand the test of time. In big things and in little things time and human experience have shown that he erred.

Marcus Aurelius touched the reflective mind of the world, but he was as cold and austere as brown marble. …

Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ is a thing of rare beauty and sympathy, but it is, as its name indicates, only an imitation.

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia is yet a dream that cannot be realized.

Lord Bacon writing on chemistry and medicine under the glasses of the man working in a 20th century laboratory is puerile.

The world’s most learned doctors until 150 years ago gave dragon’s blood and ground tails of lizards and shells of eggs for certain ailments. The great surgeons a hundred years ago bled a man if he were wounded.

Napoleon had the world at his feet for four years, and when he died the world was going on its way as if he had never lived.

JESUS TAUGHT little as to property because He knew there were things of more importance than property. He measured property and life, the body and soul, at their exact relative value. He taught much more as to character, because character is of more importance than dollars.

Other men taught us to develop systems of government. Jesus taught so as to perfect the minds of men. Jesus looked to the soul, while other men dwelled on material things.

After the experience of 2,000 years no man can find a flaw in the governmental system outlined by Jesus.

Czar and kaiser, president and socialist, give to its complete merit their admiration.

No man today, no matter whether he follows the doctrine of Mill, Marx or George as to property, can find a false principle in Jesus’s theory of property.

In the duty of a man to his fellow, no sociologist has ever approximated the perfection of the doctrine laid down by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount.

Not all the investigations of chemists, not all the discoveries of explorers, not all the experiences of rulers, not all the historical facts that go to make up the sum of human knowledge on this day in 1912 are in contradiction to one word uttered or one principle laid down by Jesus.

The human experiences of 2,000 years show that Jesus never made a mistake. Jesus never uttered a doctrine that was true at that time and then became obsolete.

Jesus spoke the truth, and the truth is eternal.

History has no record of any other man leading a perfect life or doing everything in logical order. Jesus is the only person whose every action and whose every utterance strike a true note in the heart and mind of every man born of woman. He never said a foolish thing, never did a foolish act and never dissembled.

No poet, no dreamer, no philosopher loved humanity with all the love that Jesus bore toward all men.

WHO, THEN, was Jesus?

He could not have been merely a man, for there never was a man who had two consecutive thoughts absolute in truthful perfection.

Jesus must have been what Christendom proclaims Him to be — a divine being — or He could not have been what He was. No mind but an infinite mind could have left behind those things which Jesus gave the world as a heritage.

No. I do not believe that Jesus would be a part of the social justice movement. His was and is a soul-saving movement. One that still brings hundreds of thousand of people to individual salvation on this terrestrial ball every day. A movement that, in fact, was embraced by the founders of this cherished land.

The following is courtesy of adherents.com:

There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. There were 48 signers of the Articles of Confederation. All 55 delegates who participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 are regarded as Founding Fathers, in fact, they are often regarded as the Founding Fathers because it is this group that actually debated, drafted and signed the U.S. Constitution, which is the basis for the country’s political and legal system. Only 39 delegates actually signed the document, however, meaning there were 16 non-signing delegates – individuals who were Constitutional Convention delegates but were not signers of the Constitution.

There were 95 Senators and Representatives in the First Federal Congress. If one combines the total number of signatures on the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution with the non-signing Constitutional Convention delegates, and then adds to that sum the number of congressmen in the First Federal Congress, one obtains a total of 238 “slots” or “positions” in these groups which one can classify as “Founding Fathers” of the United States. Because 40 individuals had multiple roles (they signed multiple documents and/or also served in the First Federal Congress), there are 204 unique individuals in this group of “Founding Fathers.” These are the people who did one or more of the following:

– signed the Declaration of Independence
– signed the Articles of Confederation
– attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787
– signed the Constitution of the United States of America
– served as Senators in the First Federal Congress (1789-1791)
– served as U.S. Representatives in the First Federal Congress

The religious affiliations of these individuals are summarized below. Obviously this is a very restrictive set of names, and does not include everyone who could be considered an “American Founding Father.” But most of the major figures that people generally think of in this context are included using these criteria, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and more.

Courtesy adherents.com

Religious Affiliation of U.S. Founding Fathers

# of Founding Fathers/% of Founding Fathers

Episcopalian/Anglican 88 54.7%
Presbyterian 30 18.6%
Congregationalist 27 16.8%
Quaker 7 4.3%
Dutch Reformed/German Reformed 6 3.7%
Lutheran 5 3.1%
Catholic 3 1.9%
Huguenot 3 1.9%
Unitarian 3 1.9%
Methodist 2 1.2%
Calvinist 1 0.6%
TOTAL 204

The Founding Fathers were, I do not doubt, aware of the following passage:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. – 2 Corinthians 3:17

The Eight Per Centers (Atheists) who reply to my blogs on Facebook and other Internet Sites insist that Crosses and other Christian symbols have no place in the Public Square.  They wish for Christians to remain unseen and unheard from, worshiping in private, and for Christian Americans to  “compromise” our Faith (i.e., shut up about Homosexual Marriage and other sins,  being used as political expediencies to further an agenda to “radically change” America into something that it was never meant to be.

Well,  y’all can wish for a unicorn to magically appear in your backyard…but that ain’t gonna happen, either.

As a free nation, all you who are non-believers have every right to exercise your faith.

However, as Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin of the Jewish Policy Center clearly explains:

[I] understand that I live . . . in a Christian nation, albeit one where I can follow my faith as long as it doesn’t conflict with the nation’s principles. The same option is open to all Americans and will be available only as long as this nation’s Christian roots are acknowledged and honored.

…Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the west is doomed. Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah, and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in. God help Jews if America ever becomes a post-Christian society! Just think of Europe!

Is the Rabbi prophetic? I pray that he isn’t. 

I have, however, noticed in the last few years, a propensity among those who have not been raised in a Christian home, to be intolerant toward those who have….staring with the individual who sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

Americans’ Christian Faith, of which 76% of us, according to Gallup, still anchor our lives around, has been the Solid Rock upon which our nation was built. To deny that, is to deny reality, to re-write history, and, to, quite frankly, endanger “the Shining City on a Hill”.

As President Ronald Reagan said, 

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

Isn’t it interesting that those among us who claim to be the most tolerant are actually the least tolerant of all?

And, those who claim to be champions of “personal freedom” are enemies of the religious freedom secured for us in the United States Constitution?Until He Comes,

KJ

Thanksgiving 2014: A Country In Debt To Our Creator

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

Thanksgiving2013Thanksgiving Day.

Simply saying the words to myself brings back a flood of precious memories…memories of Thanksgivings past, as a child, surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins, my sisters, and my Mother and Daddy…smells of sage dressing and oven-roasted turkey..followed by the feeling of having an over-stuffed stomach…all topped by the sounds of laughter and the sight of my aunts and uncles, all members of America’s Greatest Generation, being led in a penny-ante poker game after the Thanksgiving meal by my Daddy, the finest man I have ever known…all of them enjoying each other’s company as they reveled in the wonderful completeness of being a family.

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American Holiday…as unique as the nation which celebrates it.

In 1621, a small group of Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared a feast celebrating the autumn harvest. This is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies.

However, Thanksgiving is much more than this.

Thanksgiving is a day when Americans thank their Creator for the blessings they have received during the year, while holding hope and expectation in their hearts for the blessings yet to come.

The Father of Our Country expressed his thankfulness concerning God and America, when he announced this holiday in 1789:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor – and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be – That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks – for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation – for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war –for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed – for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions – to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually – to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed – to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord – To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us – and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789. – United States President George Washington.

On October 3, 1863, in the middle of the darkness and strife of a Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the following…

By the President of the United States

A Proclamation

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. 

Abraham Lincoln

The intestinal fortitude that is our heritage as Americans…along with that still, small voice which still resides in each and every one of us, will continue, I pray, to guide our nation, and spur us on, to stay vigilant and protect our American Freedom, just as my Parents’ Generation did, against the Axis of Evil.

This Thanksgiving Day 2014, I’m thankful for Americans who are still making a difference.  Americans who still love God and country, and stand on principle with their feet planted on a Solid Rock, and not on shifting sands.

They are the reason we remain, in spite of all that has befallen us in the last 6 years, the greatest country on Earth.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

The Death of Country Music

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment, Politics2 Comments

Hee HawNobody saw him running from sixteenth avenue
They never found the fingerprint or the weapon that was used
But someone killed country music, cut out its heart and soul
They got away with murder down on music row

The almighty dollar and the lust for worldwide fame
Slowly killed tradition and for that someone should hang
They all say not guilty, but the evidence will show
That murder was committed down on music row

For the steel guitars no longer cry and fiddles barely play
But drums and rock ‘n’ roll guitars are mixed up in your face
Old Hank wouldn’t have a chance on today’s radio
Since they committed murder, down on music row

They thought no one would miss it, once it was dead and gone
They said no one would buy them old drinking and cheating songs
Well I’ll still buy ’em
Well there ain’t no justice in it and the hard facts are cold
Murder’s been committed, down on music row

Oh, the steel guitars no longer cry and you can’t hear fiddles play
With drums and rock ‘n roll guitars mixed right up in your face
Why, the hag, he wouldn’t have a chance on today’s radio
Since they committed murder down on music row
Why, they even tell the posse to pack up and go back home
There’s been an awful murder down on music row

“Murder on Music Row”. George Strait/Alan Jackson, 2000

On this Saturday Morning, right across  Stateline Road, from the home of Elvis Presley,Memphis, Tennessee in Northwest Mississippi, I sit here reflecting on Saturday nights, growing up with my Mother and Daddy.

Every family, to this day, have rituals that they observe like clockwork.

Our Saturday Night Ritual was to eat homemade hamburgers, spaghetti, or crockpot beans off of TV trays and watch Hee Haw, the syndicated country music variety show, out of Nashville, which starred Buck Owens, Roy Clark, and a “cast of thousands”.

The snotty folks up in the Northeast Corridor never could figure out what made that “hick show”, that lasted 25 years,  so popular.

After all, it was about traditional American Values, love of God and Country, respecting our American Musical Heritage, and featuring talented performers who wrote songs, sang, played their own instruments, loved and appreciated their fans, and actually behaved like average Americans.

Plus, they had the good grace and common sense to keep their private lives, private.

This week foxnews.com reported that…

The country star opens up about his past, present and future in an interview with Entertainment Tonight’s Nischelle Turner that rivals ABC’s country soap “Nashville” with its real-life drama. Herndon discussed everything from his former drug use, his failed marriages and his current relationship.

“I have an awesome relationship that I’ve been in for a good number of years,” Herndon tells ET in a new sit-down airing Thursday. “[I] love him very much and he loves me.”

Married twice before, Herndon reveals that both of his ex-wives were “absolutely” aware of his sexuality.

“I had a lot of people around me that I trusted at a time and I was like,’Hey, you know this about me but the world doesn’t. So I’m gonna need to call on your services for a little while,'” he confessed. “It was unfortunate that I had to do that, but I felt that’s what I had to do to have my career. Standing on some pretty solid legs today, so I get to tell my truth today.”

The news brings new meaning to the singer’s latest album, “Lies I Told Myself,” which was released in 2013. Today, Herndon reveals that the biggest lie he told himself is “that I couldn’t be gay in country music.”

“I’ve dreamed about being in country music since I was 6 years old,” he said. “It’s my life, it’s what I do, it’s who I am, and I went to great lengths to cover up that fact to be to be a country star.”

Rumors surrounding Herndon’s sexuality first surfaced back in 1995, when an undercover male police officer alleged that the star exposed himself in a park.

“I wish I had really great recall or memory about that,” Herndon said of the allegation. “I think I had been up for like 6 days doing drugs the night and the day was really a huge blur for me.”

Now fully clean and sober, Herndon is looking forward to a future with his partner of five years, joking with ET that he hoped a proposal might follow his big reveal. “God, I’m hoping he asks me right after this interview!” he said.

“I do want children one day, you know,” he added. “I do want to be married one day.”

But for now, Herndon says he’s thrilled to be seeing increasing levels of acceptance in Nashville.

“Traditionally in country music, we don’t see a lot of support for the LGBT community, but that’s changing so much,” he said. “Nashville is changing so much. I mean my goodness… Kacey Musgraves won Song of the Year for [the lyrics] ‘follow your arrow, wherever it points’ and two amazing songwriters that happened to be gay wrote that song.”

Herndon continued, “It gives me a lot of hope that that Nashville is ready for this. I get to be free today. I’m born again today, and I feel like I’m not gonna have any trouble sleeping tonight.”

Herndon’s story inspired fellow country singer Billy Gilman to come out as well.

“It was in that moment that I knew that I’d rather it be from me, than you reading it from somewhere else,” Gilman said in a YouTube video Thursday.

Actually, boys, y’all could have kept your lust for hairy-legged gents to yourselves. America ain’t New York City.

What is happening to country music reflects a lot about the culture we live in.   Artists who actually lived what they sung about like Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, The Statlers, Jim Ed Brown, Porter Waggoner, Bocephus, Randy Travis, Jeannie C. Riley, and Elvis Presley have been replaced by fashion model wannabes and burned-out rock stars.

Please don’t get me wrong.  There is still a lot of great talent in country music.  Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, the Zac Brown Band, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Clint Black, Carrie Underwood, and Rascal Flatts, among others, are very talented performers.

However, in our culture of fast lives, fast food, and instant gratification, superficiality sells.  That’s how we got stuck with Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

It is easier and more profitable for a record company to sell someone who looks good and can sing a little, or release a country music album made by a fading rock star, than it is for them to market someone who is unbelievably talented and writes their own songs, but resembles your next door neighbor.

Remember the Kid Rock, Bruce Springsteen, and Van Morrison country music CD fiascos?  No?  I don’t blame you.  I wouldn’t admit it, either.

Can you imagine Hank Williams, Sr., Patsy Cline, or Buck Owens trying to get a record deal today?

I’m sorry Mr. Williams.  Your vocalization is way too twangy and you drink way too much.  “I Saw The Light”?  What kind of song is that?  A song about redemption?  Get real.  “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”?  Who Cares?  You’re just not marketable.

Miss Cline, we can’t use you.  You look like somebody’s next door neighbor.

Mr. Owens, what is the “Bakersfield Sound” that you’re talking about?  That won’t get any airtime in New York City.   “Act Naturally”?  That’s a song?  Next thing you know, you’ll tell me that the Beatles will want to record it.

Now you know why Toby Keith formed his own record label. 

The big recording companies like RCA Nashville and Arista are run like any other business.  Executives are transferred from other cities and other divisions within the company and are judged to be successful by the amount of revenue they generate.  The decision was made several years ago to turn country music into pop music.  Country music started the transition from Kitty Wells to Miranda Lambert and from George Jones to Kid Rock in an effort to claim a bigger share of the CD-buying public.  The disconnect arises when you take a genre that has traditionally sung  about God, America, family, and heartache and try to make it about fashionistas, MTV, and shallow people with situational morality and ethics. 

That dog don’t hunt.

Allow me to close with this video from Alan Jackson and George Strait, of the song featured at the beginning of today’s blog.  As you read earlier, they expressed the situation much more eloquently than I can.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgiILl_F7O8]

Until He Comes,

KJ