Tag: popular culture

Why is Suicide Now the Leading Cause of Death for 13-and 14 Year Olds?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics, UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Suicides among the youngest U.S. teenagers were rising for years before the pandemic — with school stress, social media and guns standing as potential factors, according to a new study.

Researchers found that between 2008 and 2018, the suicide rate among 13- and 14-year-olds nationwide more than doubled — from roughly two deaths per 100,000 teens in 2008, to five per 100,000 a decade later.

It was a stark reversal of a decline that began in the late-1990s.

And, in fact, suicide is now the leading cause of death for 13- and 14-year-olds in the United States…” (Courtesy Newsmax.com)

Guns? Guns can not fire themselves, nor can they personally interact with human beings on their own.

The fact of the matter is that kids are not getting the attention they need at home, and they’re not getting the non-political support that they need at school.

Nowadays, it takes both parents working in order to afford the basic necessities needed to raise a family.

That leaves very little time for the raising of a child. With children not getting the attention they need at home, they are naturally turning to the social media, the school, and their peers.

Public schools have become, for the most part, centers for the dissemination of Cultural Marxist propaganda designed to “make children think in a politically correct manner.”

Their friends can offer their opinions. However, they are being fed the same propaganda.

Nowadays, the majority of kids spend most of their time texting on their phones with other kids, playing video games, and talking about other students.

Kids today do not grow up playing outside and learning interpersonal communication skills.

In other words, they don’t know how to resolve conflict face-to-face, and they have never found out firsthand that there are actual real-world consequences for talking ugly and spreading false rumors about someone.

Even though they are communicating with each other electronically, kids today are living in isolation.

They have not learned how to be kind to one another.

They have not learned empathy.

Somehow, someway, parents and students need to start learning how to communicate with one another face-to-face.

Make no mistake. The family unit, as we know it, is under attack.

Pray for our kids.

Pray for our families.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Is Kanye West’s Salvation Experience for Real? With God All Things are Possible

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

 

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“Now that I’m in service to Christ, my job is to spread the gospel, to let people know what Jesus has done for me,” West explained. “I’ve spread a lot of things. There was a time I was letting you know what high fashion had done for me. I was letting you know what the Hennessy had done for me. I was letting you know all these things but now I’m letting you know what Jesus has done for me.”

“And in that, I’m no longer I’m no longer a slave,” West continued. “I’m a son now. Son of God. I’m free through Christ.” – Breitbart.com, 10/25/19

 

ChristianPost.com reports that

Kanye West celebrated his new Gospel album reaching No. 1 on the Billboard charts and American Bible Society says they are committed to giving Bibles to any of his fans inquiring to read the Word.

With nine studio albums to his credit, West’s Jesus is King, released October 25, is his ninth consecutive album to debut at the top slot of The Billboard 200. The chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in America. West’s ranking will reflect on the chart set to be released on Tuesday.

The rapper and fashion guru is now tied with Eminem for the “most consecutive No. 1’s on the Billboard 200 charts,” says Billboard.

His latest album, Jesus Is King also breaks West’s prior streaming record, giving him his biggest streaming week ever and the fifth largest overall in 2019, at 196.9 million on-demand streams, Billboard reported. The 27 minute music release garnered the second-largest sales week of the year for an R&B/Hip-Hop album, with over 100,000 copies sold.

“Number one in the country right now, number one in the world right now, Jesus is King,” West declared at his Baton Rouge, Sunday Service concert on Friday on Bethany Church grounds. 

“Number one song, number one album and they told me I would (inaudible) if I gave my life to Christ but God is showing out,” he continued. 

“Who’s number one? Jesus is number one!” the rapper declared as his gospel choir sang the chorus “Father I stretch my hands to you.” After the concert, 1,000 people reportedly came to faith in Jesus Christ.

For many years, West publicly projected a god complex through his blasphemous alter ego Yeezus. But in 2019 everything changed for him, and he began his Sunday Service events featuring a gospel choir that reimagined mainstream songs with Christian lyrics. West said he became a born again Christian during this process and has now devoted his life to “working for God.”

Due to the reaction to West’s conversion and his newfound passion to weekly evangelize across the world with Sunday Service concerts, American Bible Society announced that they will send up to 1,000 free Bibles to anyone in the U.S. curious about the historical book and Christian faith. 

“Kanye West’s album has had an immediate effect on the current news cycle. ‘Jesus is King’ was a trending internet search last week with over 1 million queries on Google alone,” said Dr. John Farquhar Plake, director of ministry intelligence at American Bible Society in a statement shared with The Christian Post. 

“Coincidentally, something we’re seeing as a rising trend is that most Americans turn to Google as a de facto spiritual guide. Our goal with this campaign is to give Americans – and, yes, Kanye fans – the opportunity to look for answers to their most pertinent questions at the source.”

Since the release of the album, searches for the term “Jesus” and the phrase “What do Christians believe?” both spiked in the U.S. American Bible Society hopes to aide those searching for answers by offering free access to the Bible.

Rebecca Richman from ABS told CP that anyone interested in receiving a Bible – completely free of charge can do so by November 22 here.

West will reportedly continue to make faith-based music and is gearing up to release a holiday album. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music’s Beats 1, the father of four announced his upcoming Christmas record is titled Jesus Is Born.

“I believe because God has given me a gift that I pray for and so many people love,” West told Lowe, “that if I stop doing it, He might start to take all the things away.”

So, has Kanye West truly been born again or saved?

As someone who has never actually been a fan of him of his music, I have to admit that I was a skeptic at first.

Then, I remembered a big ol’ fisherman named Simon whom, with others, met Jesus one day and was told,

Follow me and I will make you fishers of men! 

So, he did.

And, he was never the same again.

He was not a perfect man.

However, the One who called him from the fishing nets was.

Simon became Peter.

Yes, he lied about knowing Jesus when they led him away. But, he was forgiven and became the rock upon which the church was built.

Kanye’s conversion is no less improbable than Peter’s was.

Americans, especially Christians, have to make a choice in these tough times whether to accept popular culture’s relative morality and situational ethics and allow those who are attempting to “radically change” our Sovereign Nation, given to us by God into a Democratic Socialist Paradise or…

As the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians, 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

And, that is what Kanye West has done.

He is indeed a new man in Christ.

We all need to remember that our Christianity as Americans does not and can not end at Noon on Sunday, as we shake the Preacher’s hand and walk out of the sanctuary.

“Onward, Christian Soldiers, marching as to war.”

Because believe me, Americans…we are in one.

Pray for our President.

Pray for our country.

And, pray for Kanye West.

HIs journey in Christ is just beginning.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Why are Mass Shootings Like the One at the Gilroy Garlic Festival Happening More Often…How Can We Prevent Them?

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

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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. – Phil Robertson

FoxNews.com reports that

The gunman who killed three people at a Northern California food festival Sunday night turned and fired his “AK-47-type assault rifle” at responding officers before being fatally wounded, police say, as they continue investigating what may have led Santino William Legan to carry out the horrific assault.

Gilroy Chief of Police Scot Smithee told reporters Monday afternoon the attack at the Gilroy Garlic Festival resulted in the deaths of a male in his 20s, a 13-year-old female and a 6-year-old.

“Despite the fact that they were outgunned with their handguns against a rifle, those three officers were able to fatally wound that suspect,” Smithee said, describing how officers among those already at the event to provide security engaged the gunman less than a minute after the first shots rang out.

“It could have gotten so much worse, so fast,” he added.

Police believe Legan legally purchased the rifle in Nevada on July 9 before returning to California with it at some point. A motive for the shooting has yet to be determined.

“Mass gun violence is an epidemic in the United States yet one can never imagine such a thing would happen here in our beautiful community,” Gilroy Mayor Roland Volasco said.

Volasco also hailed police for their quick response, saying the officers “undoubtedly saved many lives by putting their own lives in danger.

“It takes remarkable bravery to run to a shooting when the natural reaction for all of us is to run away,” he added.

Smithee said the gunman gained access to the festival by cutting through a fence near a creek area. He said some witnesses reported a second suspect, but police could not immediately confirm those reports and it was unclear if that person also had a weapon or may have been providing some support to the shooter.

The band TinMan was just starting an encore at the festival when shots rang out.

Singer Jack van Breen said he saw a man wearing a green shirt and grayish handkerchief around his neck fire into the food area with what looked like an assault rifle. Van Breen and other members of the band then dove under the stage.

During the chaos, Van Breen says he heard someone shout: “Why are you doing this? “and the reply was: “because I’m really angry. “

President Trump, speaking about the shooting Monday, said a “wicked murderer opened fire and killed three innocent citizens including a young child.”

“We grieve for their families and we ask that God will comfort them with his overflowing mercy and grace,” he added. “We are praying for those who are recovering right now in the hospital, some very, very serious injuries. We thank the brave members of law enforcement — they never let us down — who swiftly killed the shooter.”

The Santa Clara Medical Examiner identified one of the victims as 6-year-old Stephen Romero, of San Jose.

“He had his whole life to live,” Alberto Romero, the boy’s father, told NBC Bay Area.

Ryan Wallace, a witness, told the channel that he watched the gunman — who was almost dressed like a police officer — raise his gun up and started to “spray rounds.” The gunman walked through the crowd, he said.

“He wanted to get stuff done,” he said. “It was horrifying.”

Personal videos posted to Twitter appeared to show large crowds evacuating the festival. Many witnesses said the shots sounded like fireworks and there initially was confusion over the source of the noise.

One witness told KTVU that he heard what he believed was 30 rounds. Some witnesses said the gunman was in army fatigues.

Natalie Martinez, a Gilroy resident, told the Mercury News that she had gone to get food and separated from her two daughters. “I ran to find the girls and we basically ran into each other. I thought, ‘We’re open prey.’ It was awful.”

There are no excuses which can suffice in regards to the actions of this young man who so heinously and efficiently took the lives of those whom he struck down in cold blood.

In both the case of Santino William Legan and the mass murderer of innocents at Parkland High School in Florida, there were markers along the way which should have told those who were involved in their lives, both parents and friends, that there was something just not right with them.

You can call it profiling or you can call it a spirit of discernment, as the Bible describes it. Those who were around these individuals should have noticed something.

California has some of the strictest Gun control Laws in the nation.

Additionally, those attending were forbidden from bringing firearms for personal protection into the festival.

And yet, the psychopathic Legan was still able to sneak a gun into the event which was illegal to possess, according to California Law.

In my opinion, there is one solution:

We need evil control. What I mean is that we need parents to actually act like parents and be involved in their children’s lives. We need teachers and friends who care enough about individuals to say something to both them and to their families when something is just not right.

As someone who watched his parents deal with the mental illness of a family member, I’m not saying that it will be easy. It is a hard thing to face up to and to confront. But, it has to be done.

Those who are constantly calling for gun control seek to punish the entire nation for the actions of some by taking away our 2nd Amendment rights.

If those same people would stop for a moment and consider that guns are inanimate objects which cannot fire themselves and then focus on the true cause of the increase in violence in our nation, then perhaps we could actually start making some headway and provide the care and treatment to the individuals who need it in time to avoid the horrific event of a mass murder, such as happened in Gilroy, California.

I am not saying that this will get rid of all of the mentally ill people in our country who wish to murder others, but it seems to me that back in the day when parents actually raised their children, along with the rest of the neighborhood who raised us, we did not see this preponderance of violent acts which we are seeing today.

Also, one last thing. Getting back to raising our children and grandchildren in the “Faith of Our Fathers”, wouldn’t be such a bad idea, either.

Until He Comes,

KJ

KJ’s “State of the Union”…An Unfolding of a Biblical Prophecy

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

Washington-Praying

1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. – 2 Timothy 3: 1-4 (ESV)

Sound familiar?

This is a spot on assessment of America’s popular culture, especially on the Left Coast and up in the Northeastern “Beltway” running through New York City and Washington, DC.

I am not sitting here in my man-cave, looking up at my poster of all the Biblical names for Jesus Christ, telling you that He is coming back soon. However, we are closer to hearing the “trumpet sound” than previous generations.

The Day of the Lord will indeed come like a thief in the night.

But, I digress.

I was in Walmart a while back, when I saw a group of middle schoolers roaming the store as if it was their personal playground. They were touching everything and generally causing mayhem, when an employee asked them to stop.

They responded by smarting off to that employee as if they were a peer.

That moment made me wonder about their parents.

Time went by and I found myself in that same Walmart. A group of around a dozen or so teenage girls came in the store with a well-dressed woman whom I presumed was one of their mothers.

I watched them as the woman gave lists to the girls for what was apparently a scavenger hunt being held in that Walmart as an activity for one of the girls’ birthday party.

Included in the activities was going up to the employees as if they were animals in a zoo and getting their pictures taken with them, or asking them stupid questions, as if these Americans, working hard at Walmart, were somehow inferior and objects for ridicule.

This behavior really struck a nerve with me as my late step-sister (15 years older), my sister (9 years older), and myself (“”Baby Brother” or just “Brother” as my Daddy called me all of his life) would never have been allowed to treat anyone that way.

You see, we were taught to respect everyone and to treat everyone the same way, whether they were a janitor or an executive.

And, we were raised to love God and attended church on a regular basis.

I feel sorry for those young people and their parents, also.

What I witnessed at that Walmart was a microcosm of what is going on right now in this Sovereign Nation which God has given to us.

From the attacks on the Covington Christian High School kids to the signing of the NY Abortion Law to the blazing hypocrisy and downright treasonous words and deeds of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Ralph Northam, and the rest of the “Democratic Socialists” of the Far Left Democratic Party, we are watching the prophetic warning found in 2 Timothy 3: 1-4 being played out right before us.

However, there is always hope and joy in the morning.

Americans, by the Grace of God, as Press Secretary Sarah Sanders reminded us, elected a strong leader in Donald J. Trump, who loves God, America, and her people.

However, even though approximately 75% of Americans profess themselves to be Christians, there still needs to be “revival in the land”.

Average Christian Americans must come together and remain as united as we were on the night of November 8, 2016 in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

We MUST continue to fight the good fight.

Don’t believe what you see and hear from the Fake News Outlets.

Believe that “still small voice” inside you.

It belongs to the Solid Rock upon which our Sovereign Nation was formed…

And the same Solid Rock upon which it will endure.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Franklin Graham Crusade Ads Banned in England While in America, United Methodists are Having a “Civil War”

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

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Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face. – Ronald Reagan

ChristianPost.com reports that

Bus ads promoting an upcoming evangelistic festival with Franklin Graham in England were pulled in response to outcry from LGBT communities.

“Blackpool Transport has recently been made aware of an advert in place on the side of some of our double decker buses,” said a spokesperson for the company, according to the Blackpool Gazette.

“In light of customer feedback and reactions on social media which has resulted in heightened tension, we have taken the decision to remove all adverts relating to the ‘Time for Hope’ Festival with immediate effect. We will reimburse any income back to the advertising company.

“We work with multiple advertisers and third-parties and in no way do we endorse or support any advertisement which is placed on our vehicles.”

Graham’s Lancashire Festival of Hope is scheduled to take place at the Winter Gardens Blackpool on Sept. 21-23. While Graham is expected to focus his message on the Gospel, local residents complained and expressed opposition to the evangelist’s stances on issues such as gay marriage and Islam.

Jane Cole, managing director at Blackpool Transport, further explained their decision to pull the bus ads.

“Blackpool Transport is a proud ongoing supporter of the Pride and LGBT+ communities and in no way did we intend to cause any distress or upset,” Cole stated.

“All buses carrying the advert will remain off the road until they have been removed.”

Graham, like many evangelicals, has backed the biblical definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. He has also warned against the “dangers of the teachings of Islam” in the wake of terror attacks around the world.

His views have prompted a change.org petition, where some 8,000 people wanted him banned from entering the U.K. over his “hate speech.”

Responding to the controversy, Graham insisted in an interview with Premier in January that he is not going to Blackpool to preach against Islam or gay people.

“I’m not coming to preach hate, I’m here to preach about a savior, Jesus Christ who can make a difference in our lives if we put our faith and trust in Him,” Graham stated.

“We’re not here to preach against anyone, we’re here to talk about God.”

The CEO and president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said that he is prepared for any protests he is likely to face when preaching in September. He added that his father, the late evangelist Billy Graham, was also opposed when preaching at U.K. events.

“They tried to stop him coming,” he recalled. “He was due off a boat into Southampton and there were petitions to stop him coming and members of parliament speaking against him.”

Graham noted that Jesus Christ himself “offended many people,” and that the Gospel “still offends people today.”

Evidently.

Even as I write, churches are voting to leave the United Methodists, a denomination which I was raised in and stayed a part of for 40 years.

The reason?

There is a push within some parts of the denomination to fully embrace the lifestyle of the LGBT “community”, allowing them to have leadership roles and to get married within the church.

Right now, I can hear the Liberals who read my posts in order to raise their blood pressure beyond their usual catharsis, saying,

Well, what’s wrong with that? Christ loved and embraced everyone.

Indeed He did.

Jesus was often found in the company of sinners…but not because He accepted their sins. He was with them because he loved them and loathed their sin. He was there to redeem them through His Loving Grace, so that they might repent and find salvation through Him.

Through a purposeful infiltration of Christianity, Liberals, both here and in England have steered denominations away from God’s Holy Word, the Bible, and have substituted Man’s philosophy and popular culture, instead.

When that sort of secular idolatry is worshiped and celebrated, instead of Jesus Christ’s victory on the cross through His Blood as the expiation for the sins of the whole world, those who believe that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God have a decision to make: either stay and worship man’s word or attend a Bible-believing Church.

In England’s case, the Anglican Church became corrupted years ago, sacrificing any moral authority it may have had on the Altar of Political Correctness, diminishing both in power and in congregational size, until nowadays it is nonexistent in the day-to-day lives of average British Citizens.

And, gentle readers, if average Americans had not put the brakes on America’s downward slide on November 8, 2016, we could have easily have been in the same Babylon-like culture which the UK finds itself in today….proclaiming that sin is love and that Bible-believing Christianity is hatred.

In both the case of the UK banning those Franklin Graham Bus Ads and the civil war being fought in American Churches, including the United Methodists’, we are viewing Liberal Intolerance in action.

While Evangelicals, such as myself, welcome all sinners, including gays, into our churches.

We do so because we view the church as a “Hospital for Sinners”, which we all are.

Liberals, both in England and America, view the church as the latest “Shrine in which to Worship Political Correctness”.

The problem with their belief is that God always has the last word.

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah?

Until He Comes,

KJ

A KJ Sunday Morning Reflection: The Role of American Christianity in Today’s Political and Cultural Arena

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

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On this Sabbath Morning, I was thinking about my Christian Faith, one shared by the overwhelming majority of Americans, and the role that it has played in shaping our nation’s past and the role that it will play in shaping our nation’s future.

I then started remembering all the efforts during recent years by self-proclaimed political pundits and “cultural leaders” to place American Christianity in a box.

Do American Political Leaders have the right to invoke the Name of the God of Abraham in their public speeches?

Do political bloggers, such as myself, still have the right to express our concerns about the direction that America is taking, by framing it in the context of traditional Christian American Faith and Values?

Or, should Christian Americans keep our faith out of the Public Arena of Ideas, like the “Smartest People in the Room” keep  insisting?

Almost two years ago, The Washington Post reported that

METAIRIE, La. — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday the idea of religious neutrality is not grounded in the country’s constitutional traditions and that God has been good to the U.S. exactly because Americans honor him.

Scalia was speaking at a Catholic high school in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana. Scalia, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 is the court’s longest serving justice. He has consistently been one of the court’s more conservative members.

He told the audience at Archbishop Rummel High School that there is “no place” in the country’s constitutional traditions for the idea that the state must be neutral between religion and its absence.

“To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come from?” he said. “To be sure, you can’t favor one denomination over another but can’t favor religion over non-religion?”

He also said there is “nothing wrong” with the idea of presidents and others invoking God in speeches. He said God has been good to America because Americans have honored him. 

Scalia said during the Sept. 11 attacks he was in Rome at a conference. The next morning, after a speech by President George W. Bush in which he invoked God and asked for his blessing, Scalia said many of the other judges approached him and said they wished their presidents or prime ministers would do the same.

“God has been very good to us. That we won the revolution was extraordinary. The Battle of Midway was extraordinary. I think one of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor. Unlike the other countries of the world that do not even invoke his name we do him honor. In presidential addresses, in Thanksgiving proclamations and in many other ways,” Scalia said.

“There is nothing wrong with that and do not let anybody tell you that there is anything wrong with that,” he added.

Scalia’s comments Saturday come as the court prepares to hear arguments later this year in a case that challenges part of President Barack Obama’s health care law and whether it adequately shields faith-based hospitals, colleges and charities from having to offer contraceptive coverage to their employees.

For what now seems like an eternity, those on the Left side (along with some of those who claim to be on the Right Side) of the Political Aisle, led by Former President Barack Hussein Obama,  have focused their attention on “radically changing” America.

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

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

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

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

So, when is all this Christianity in America going to “fade away” as predicted by “the Smartest People in the Room”?

As polls have shown…not any time soon.

America remains a nation whose population consists of 70-75%, who proclaim Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior and 92%, who believe in God.

However, if you read some of the comments posted on Conservative Websites and Facebook Political Pages, by self-appointed “pundits”, you would think that Christian Americans are the minority in this nation.

I can testify from personal experience, having caught flack for sticking to my Christian American Conservative Principles, since beginning my daily posts on this blog in April of 2010.

My posts, concerning American Christianity, seem to “touch a nerve” in both Liberals and Atheists, alike. (But, in at least some cases, I repeat myself.)

Their reaction has hardly been unexpected.

Of course, one of the Hot Button Issues, which those Liberals and Atheists who responded, over the years, immediately denied, was that our Founding Fathers were Christians and that our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian Belief System.

Evidently, they had never read anything, except what their like-minded, non-believing soothsayers, allowed them to.  Or else, they would have read historical documents like President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, written on November 1, 1777, and found at wallbuilders.com:

The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, to set apart a day of public thanksgiving, brought in a report; which was taken into consideration, and agreed to as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.

Of course, the Poster Boy for the claim by Liberal/Atheist responders, concerning the Founders’ lack of  Christianity, is Thomas Jefferson.

Atheists like to bring up the fact that he wrote a version of the Bible which left out Christ’s miracles.  What they are reluctant to do, though, is explain why he wrote his book that way.  David Barton explains on wallbuilders.com:

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

Atheist Activists and young and/or misinformed Liberals and self-proclaimed “Libertarians” (but, in a lot of cases, I repeat myself), who reply to my posts, insist that Crosses and other Christian symbols have no place in the Public Square.

Relying on Far Left Ideologues or their own opinion as their “highest authority”, they continue their push to eliminate the practice of American Christianity and the Traditional American Morality and Ethics which go with it from Everyday American Life, attempting to regulate Christians’ role in American Society as remaining unseen and unheard from, worshiping in private, on Sunday mornings, only.

Or, as Actor and Professional Wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would say, Obama and his minions want American Christians to

Sit down, shut up, and know your role!

Unfortunately for them, and our Current President Donald J. Trump reinforced with an Executive Order this Past Week, the First Amendment to the Constitution still holds.

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.

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

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

Churches today have to walk a fine line.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christianity continues to thrive in America, despite their best efforts.

For, as the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated so eloquently,

God has been very good to us

America was built upon a Solid Rock.

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

As President Ronald Reagan said,

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

And, as Hebrews 13:8 tells us,

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Regardless of the Political Machinations of Modern American Liberals, God will have the final word, as to our country’s future.

He always does.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Sunday Morning Thoughts: A Nation Founded By Faith Will Not Be Marginalized

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

WashingtonPrayingAs I sit here on an American Sunday morning, my bride sound asleep, here in the quiet of my stately mansion, a small 3 Bedroom Home in NW Mississippi, I ponder the reaction of some to my posts concerning the ongoing attempt by a tyrannical minority to marginalize the cultural and political clout of Christian Americans, the overwhelming majority of American Citizens…and I try not to lose my Witness.

For those that do not know what that means, it means to behave in such a manner that people will doubt that you’re actually a Christian…not unlike a certain resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.

But, I digress…

The reaction of  Modern American Liberals to my posts has hardly been unexpected.

Of course, those who responded, immediately denied that our Founding Fathers were Christians and that our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system.

Evidently, they had never read anything, except what their like-minded non-believing soothsayers allowed them to.  Or else, they would have read historical documents like President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, written on November 1, 1777, and found at wallbuilders.com:

The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, to set apart a day of public thanksgiving, brought in a report; which was taken into consideration, and agreed to as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.

And, then all the Liberals responders continued to deny Jefferson’s Christianity.

Liberals like to bring up the fact that he wrote a version of the Bible which left out Christ’s miracles.  What they are reluctant to do, though, is explain why he wrote his book that way.  David Barton explains on wallbuilders.com:

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

Finally, the Liberals who replied to my blogs insisted that Crosses and other Chrstian symbols have no place in the Public Square.  They wish for Christians to remain unseen and unheard from, worshiping in private.

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.

As we enter this Election Year, I believe that those who have attempted to silence the overwhelming majority of Americans, who still practice the Faith of Our Fathers, are going to find out that a nation founded by faith will not be marginalized.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Our First Anti-American President Shows His True Colors

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

11694963_1132998323380576_4421352922843025632_nConservatives continued to outnumber moderates and liberals in the U.S. population in 2014, as they have since 2009. However, their 14-percentage-point edge over liberals last year, 38% vs. 24%, is the smallest in Gallup’s trends since 1992. The percentage of U.S. adults identifying themselves as politically conservative in 2014 was unchanged from 2013, as was the percentage of moderates, at 34%, while the percentage considering themselves liberal rose a percentage point for the third straight year. – Gallup.com

This being true…

When did America stop being the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave…and start being the Land of the Restricted and the Home of the Apologetic?

Regardless of what your first thought probably is, this phenomenon did not originate with Barack Hussein Obama, it just intensified with him.

Thoughout his reign as the Leader of the Far Left, masquerading as a Moderate President of the United States, Obama has shown himself to be out of touch with average American thought.

Let’s review a few examples:

He started out his presidency by giving a speech at the University of Cairo, on June 4th, 2009,  an attempt to reach out to the Muslim World, the same people who danced in the streets when 3,000 Americans were massacred on September 1st, 2001.  He said:

…There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, “Be conscious of God and speak always the truth.” (Applause.) That is what I will try to do today — to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart

Now part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I’m a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.

As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities — (applause) — it was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality. (Applause.)

I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President, John Adams, wrote, “The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.” And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, they have served in our government, they have stood for civil rights, they have started businesses, they have taught at our universities, they’ve excelled in our sports arenas, they’ve won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers — Thomas Jefferson — kept in his personal library. (Applause.)

This was only the beginning of a worldwide apology tour, where he made a very public show of apologizing for our country’s transgressions to every two-bit, tinhorn despot around the globe.

Beginning with the passage of Obamacare, by him and his Congressional minions, holding clandestine meetings, both on Christmas, and in the dark of night, Obama has shown the propensity to do whatever he wants to, in order to further his personal agenda, regardless of the wishes of the people whom he is supposed to be serving.

The day after this Gallup Presidential Job Approval Poll closed, Obama, flailing mightily in a situation of his own making, the Debt Ceiling/Budget Battle, announced in a morning press conference, that 80% of Americans wanted their taxes increased.

Of course, he had no corroborating evidence to back that claim up.  He just pulled it out of thin air (or a darker region).

Let’s look at a more recent occurrence, shall we?

The Friday night before last, after the United States Supreme Court decided to legislate, instead of interpret the existing rights of the Constitution, and ruled that “gay marriage” was a “right’, Obama and his henchwoman, the Iranian Valerie Jarrett, decided to bathe the White House in a rainbow of spotlights, in garish celebration.

So naturally, they bathed the White House last Saturday Night in Red, White, and Blue, right?

Are you kiddin’?

Of course they didn’t.

In American Politics, as far as anybody can remember, that is still alive and kicking, you have had those of a political ideology who were Pro-American and Gung Ho about all the things that this country stands for. And, on the other side, you had those of a political ideology who criticized everything that America stood for, and still stands for, to this day.

From those who believed that Communism would be great for America back in the 1950s, to those in the 1960’s, who wanted to “tune in, turn on, and drop out”, and spit on our returning Servicemen, to those of the 1970s who were naive pacifists like their President, Jimmy Carter, to those in the 1980s, who were part of the “Me Generation”, to those whom we call “Progressives” (a misnomer) or “Modern Liberals” in our present generation, Including President Barack Hussein Obama and all of his minions, there has always been a minority segment of American Society, who despise everything that this land, which was given us by the Almighty and was fought for and died for by those before us, stands for, while they reap all the benefits of America the Beautiful.

As I wrote yesterday, America is suffering under this “Tyranny of the Minority”.

Obama owes everything that he is to the benevolence and largess of America and her people.

In his second term as President, he has proven that he is president of some of the people, not all of the people.

And, those of us, whom his failed political ideology does not appeal to, have had enough and are not going “quietly into that good night”.

Ask those country clerks who have resigned rather than issue marriage licenses to homosexual “couples”. Or, ask those NASCAR Fans proudly and defiantly waving their Confederate Flags at Daytona this past weekend.

Barack Hussein Obama’s “flipping the bird” to the American People on the evening of the 4th, shows just how ignorant his pandering to special interest groups and his disdain of us “average Americans” really is.

Where the exceptionalism of America lies…is not in the Halls of Power…but in the courage and spirit of the average American. A courage and spirit, which our history proves, has driven American Citizens to build a nation, which is indeed exceptional among all others.

Thr secret of this country’s exceptionalism is the “Average Joe”, the 9 to 5′er, working himself into the grave to try to provide for his family.

It was this same “Average Joe”, who fired the shot heard around the world and began the War for American Independence, who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in World War II, who waded through rice paddies in Vietnam, and who swallowed sand in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. The same “Average Joe” who, as a New York City Policeman or Fireman, ran up the stairs of the World Trade Center on 9/11/01, instead of running down them. The same “Average Joe”, who simply wants things to be easier in this life for his children and grandchildren, than he had it.

It is this same “Average Joe”, who takes family and friends in, when they are in the midst of a life-altering tragedy. The same “Average Joe”, who volunteers on a soup line or at a Senior Citizens Home, or, who begins a successful business in his basement.

Liberal Bureaucrats, like Secretary of State John Kerry and his boss, are professional political prevaricators. Men and women, whose ethics and morality change with the direction of the wind, and whose egos override their judgment…every time.

America is a Constitutional Republic. We are not ruled by a faceless all-powerful government. America’s politicians, including President Barack Hussein Obama, are OUR SERVANTS….not the other way around.

And, as their Boss, we expect them to possess a more complete knowledge of the history of the most exceptional nation on the face of God’s green Earth. We expect them to honor and respect the lives given and the sacrifices made by courageous Americans, who paved the way for you and the rest of this selfish generation, who are so desperately attempting to rewrite American History in order for it to be in accordance with the tenets of their Liberal Ideology.

America’s place in the world or her Traditional Values are not things so fragile that they can be unalterably changed by a lightweight like Barack Hussein Obama.

As author Dinesh D’ Souza wrote…

What does the doctrine of American exceptionalism empower the United States to do? Nothing more than to act better than traditional empires – committed to looting and conquest – have done. So that’s American exceptionalism: an exceptionalism based on noble ideas, ideas that it holds itself to even when it falls short of them.

In conclusion, it is not a single politician that decides America’s place in the world or the values which average Americans hold dear.

It is the fact of American Exceptionalism, seen in the lives of  average hard-working Americans, like you and me.

And, that is something that Obama and these rest of those who embrace his failed political ideology will never understand.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Living Under The Tyranny of the Minority July 5th, 2015

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

July 5th 2015As I was trying to choose what to write about on this morning after the 4th of July, a hard, cold fact struck my simple mind:  We are living in a country that is suffering under the tyranny of a minority. 

Not a racial minority, mind you, but an ideological one.

Over 70 % of Americans still self-identify as being Christians.

And yet, we are under attack daily, from the Main Stream Media, Cable and Satellite Television Programs, Social Media, and the current President of the United States of America and his Administration.

As Rev. Franklin Graham, the head of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, declares in the August-September 2014 Edition of Decision Magazine, “Heaven is not for cowards!”

“Christians cannot ignore parts of God’s Word because they are unpopular or cause division. Our commission is to proclaim Christ and all He stands for,” wrote Graham.

“This is what the church’s presence in the world is all about. We cannot sincerely proclaim the truth of God’s love while ignoring what He hates, and God hates sin.”

Graham also stressed the need for “godly courage” and for Christians to speak out against abortion and homosexuality.

“We are soldiers in God’s army, and we cannot stand down on biblical issues out of fear of being labeled a homophobe or judge,” wrote Graham.

“People make judgments every day. The world’s system passes judgments accepted by governments and citizens. But the world considers Christian judgment to be biased, judgmental and intolerant,” he added.

In a column published in the July-August edition of Decision magazine, the head of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, declared that “Heaven is not for cowards!”

“Christians cannot ignore parts of God’s Word because they are unpopular or cause division. Our commission is to proclaim Christ and all He stands for,” wrote Graham.

“This is what the church’s presence in the world is all about. We cannot sincerely proclaim the truth of God’s love while ignoring what He hates, and God hates sin.”

Graham also stressed the need for “godly courage” and for Christians to speak out against abortion and homosexuality.

“We are soldiers in God’s army, and we cannot stand down on biblical issues out of fear of being labeled a homophobe or judge,” wrote Graham.

“People make judgments every day. The world’s system passes judgments accepted by governments and citizens. But the world considers Christian judgment to be biased, judgmental and intolerant,” he added.

Rev. Graham was spot on.

I can testify from personal experience, having caught flack for sticking to my Christian American Conservative Principles, since beginning my daily posts on this blog in April of 2010.

My posts, concerning American Christianity, seem to “touch a nerve” in both Liberals and Atheists, alike. (But, in at least some cases, I repeat myself.)

Their reaction has hardly been unexpected.

Of course, one of the Hot Button Issues, which those Liberals and Atheists who responded, over the years, immediately denied, was that our Founding Fathers were Christians and that our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian Belief System.

Evidently, they had never read anything, except what their like-minded, non-believing soothsayers, allowed them to.  Or else, they would have read historical documents like President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, written on November 1, 1777, and found at wallbuilders.com:

The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, to set apart a day of public thanksgiving, brought in a report; which was taken into consideration, and agreed to as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.

Of course, the Poster Boy for the claim by Liberal/Atheist responders, concerning the Founders’ lack of  Christianity, is Thomas Jefferson.

Atheists like to bring up the fact that he wrote a version of the Bible which left out Christ’s miracles.  What they are reluctant to do, though, is explain why he wrote his book that way.  David Barton explains on wallbuilders.com:

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

The Eight Per Centers (Atheists) and young and/or misinformed Liberals, who replied to my blogs, insisted that Crosses and other Chrstian symbols have no place in the Public Square.  As we have witnessed in the past month, repeatedly, they wish for Christians to remain unseen and unheard from, worshiping in private, on Sunday mornings, only.

Unfortunately for them, The First Amendment to the Constitution still holds.

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.

So,  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, or have, turned your backed on the Christian Faith in which you were raised,  to worship popular culture, instead, have every right to your lack of faith…which, is actually a faith unto itself.

And, the overwhelming majority in this country, Christian Americans, will continue to exercise ours.

No matter what Liberal Supreme Court Justices may “legislate”.

God of our Fathers, whose almighty hand
leads forth in beauty all the starry band
of shining worlds in splendor through the skies,
our grateful songs before thy throne arise.

Until He Comes,

KJ

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

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Tyranny of the Minority, Indeed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He led me to Jesus Christ.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until He Comes,

KJ