By Debra Mullins

November 6, 2024

Socialism, we’re told, is no big deal. Some limit socialism’s inroad into America to mere health- care options. Others pair socialism with essential social services as police and fire department protection. Problem is, neither of these naïve characterizations ring true. Recently, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz casually opined, “One person’s socialism is another’s neighborliness.” His stunning caricature of what arguably is a very clear and present danger should ring alarm bells; but first, one must know the enemy. So, just what is socialism?

Socialism, Utopian in Vision

Drawn to warm and fuzzy labels of “Mamala” and Papa Tim, youth especially take to kindly, paternalistic figures who promise free access to basic life necessities like food, housing and healthcare. Nanny State socialists, as Senator Bernie Sanders, believe employment should be guaranteed as a human right. In a 2019 Town Hall, Grandpa Bernie even advocated for funding abortion and contraceptives to combat climate change! What’s not to like?

On the “up” side, socialists would solve humanity’s problems by human creation of a
completely just society. Granted, if there were no such thing as greed, envy or sloth, socialism might succeed in bringing about a more productive society marked by “neighborliness.” However, on the “down” side, the word “utopia” literally means “no place.” Though some nation-states boast centrally-planned economies with extensive government control over the means of production, no real-life examples of pure socialism exist. Despite numerous, Marxist-inspired revolutions worldwide, a classless, utopian society has yet to materialize.

•  Government-Managed Development

The socialist principle of government-managed (sustainable) development calls for revamping the very infrastructure of our nation away from private ownership and control of property to nothing short of a national zoning system through which producers are expected to provide for non-producers. This is, after all, is the neighborly thing to do. Right?

•  Guaranteed Income and Affordable Housing

All of us view life through the lens of a chosen worldview—be it secular or religious. Revolutionized and popularized by Karl Marx, the never-never land of socialism represents one such worldview. Biblically speaking, not to work is not to eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Believing the State to be God, German philosopher George Hegel used dialectic to counter any such God-notion of fixed right or wrong. Instead, socialists champion “the common good.” Their Robin Hood approach to wealth redistribution affords for “everyone” (regardless of merit) the right to guaranteed income, proverbial bread and roses, not to mention affordable housing. Like it or not, this coveted “Great Society” compels “we, the people” to serve the State under burden of tightened regulations, bureaucratic controls and invasion of privacy.

Equality v. Egalitarianism

The biblical principle of equality ascribes intrinsic value to all. (Genesis 1:27)  While right living attracts favor, sin reaps its own reward. (Ezekiel 18:20) In contrast, not to be mistaken for equality before the law, egalitarianism demands an equal outcome for all. Kamala Harris’ recent Twitter feed gave voice to this leftist-progressive narrative. In her own words, Harris aspires for “all to end up at the same place.”

Recall George Orwell’s Animal Farm which decried hypocrisy of government’s claiming to treat citizens equally while, at the same time, empowering a small elite. In reality, not to fit the Orwellian paradigm confers consequences. By way of example, Margaret Sanger is the face of egalitarianism achieved by socialism. In her world of Planned Parenthood, monochromatic outcomes are achieved by systematic elimination of “human weeds” (blacks, the diseased, reckless, tainted, feeble-minded, paupers, dependents)—this, by elitists boasting superior gene pools (herself included). It would seem that today’s targets are ostensibly “weird,” “deplorable” “haters” and fetuses void of “personhood.”

•  Some “More Equal” Than Others

Big Government specifically targets people of color for paternal provision. Black Lives Matter (BLM) works in and outside the system to heal the past (with reparations), reimagine the present (with reverse nepotism) and divest black lives from punishment paradigms (police and prisons). In an apparent show of solidarity, Kamala Harris hopped on board by publicly identifying as black, rather than East Indian.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) conveniently categorizes humanity as oppressors (the have’s) and victims (the have nots). Only “some” (the so-called victims) are afforded the right to reparations, college debt relief and dreams granted via the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. In deference to the common good, non-sustainable, non-producing “oppressors” (as fetuses, the elderly, retired or stay-at-home moms, society’s “deplorables” and white males) are relegated to the low end of society’s totem pole.

•  The Fruit of Forced Equity

In reality, the Marxist ideal demotes our culture to what Henry Lamb distinguishes as “the lowest common denominator that forced equity demands.” In Agenda: Grinding America Down, Curtis Bowers brilliantly frames the process over decades toward achieving Obama’s goal to fundamentally transform the US of A with change that socialists and ilk can believe in.

•  Thought Transformation

Biblical equality, rugged individualism, personal responsibility and meritocracy must bow at the altar of socialist egalitarianism. Consensus and censorship mandates force thought transformation. In 2020, Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan launched a Hate-Crime Hotline for willing tattlers to accuse independent thinkers of racism, bigotry, homophobia, selfishness and/or hatemongering.

Planned Parenthood à la Margaret Sanger

Known to associate with Marxists and socialists, Margaret Sanger birthed Planned Parenthood Ironic, isn’t it, that one of the best-funded, most profitable non-profits in human history disses capitalism? In 1969, a leaked Planned Parenthood memo disclosed Planned Parenthood’s agenda—namely, family limitation, increased homosexuality, compulsory abortion/ sterilization and more. And, yes, Sanger famously sexualized children. Today, vocalizing a biblical, sexual ethic to the contrary is dubbed “hate speech.”

Sanger is credited with shaping modern progressive thought (wokeness included) and thereby giving rise to the Democratic platform. Sanger believed that, without a permit for parenthood, no woman should have the legal right to bear a child. Still, freedom lovers in Chicago happily welcomed a Planned Parenthood “mobile clinic” at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. In homage, Sen. Cory Booker applauded abortion as “one of the most sacrosanct ideas in our country.” Illumined partisans, as he, accept that all are equal, but some (would-be mothers) are “more equal” than their unwanted, unindicted baby under sentence of death for no criminal offense.

1619 Project

Claiming systemic racism in American culture, the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project praised abortion, defunding the police, revoking the right to bear arms, reparations and socialism—all components of a true Marxist revolution; all complicit with Harris’ political agenda. Accordingly, without regard for merit (now deemed “racist”), all students in America’s public schools are awarded stars on their charts and participation trophies. Both DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) are used to indoctrinate children with Marxist ideology.

•  DEI’s Price to Be Paid

Over and above its primary responsibility of securing our nation’s skies, the FAA’s Diversity and Inclusion hiring plan prioritizes disabilities inclusion (e.g., hearing/vision, missing extremities, partial/complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual/psychiatric disabilities and dwarfism).

What’s more, updated guidance from the US Office of Personnel Management advances gender identity inclusion in federal hiring. A black “female” transgender is a shoo-in for landing and keeping any job pursued. Now, service members who identify as transgender may receive an indefinite waiver for physical fitness standards. While taking transition hormones, they are considered “non-deployable” for up to 300 days. Most would agree that forfeiting public safety is a dear price to be paid.

Youth Targeted for Revolution

A German school initially consisting of dissident Marxists, the Frankfort School serves as a sort of outpost for European Bolshevism in America. Father of Progressive Education, John Dewey established one such school emphasizing destruction of religion and morality. Soon after Hitler arose to power, the Franklin School (otherwise known as the Institute for Social Research) found a welcoming home at Columbia University. The Institute was the first Marxist-oriented research center affiliated with a major German University.

Through the Anarchist Movement, radical progressives, futurists and globalists target and, then, groom today’s youth for the cause of revolution. Victimization theories hook these youth; hard core action promises to ensure a just, peaceful, sustainable society; revisionist history serves as its catalyst; and Marxism assumes center stage in directing the social revolution at hand.

The strategy is loosely based on the Latin phrase Ordo Ab Chao, translated “Out of Chaos Comes Order.” Once the rate of immigration exceeds that of assimilation, chaos is unavoidable. Incited chaos inevitably sets the stage for totalitarian controls designed to reestablish order. Propagandized youth who push to the forefront of antisemitic protests, BLM riots, and the CHOP debacle have been groomed and used by handlers. Following an unthinkably cruel Hamas attack on Israel, college students across the country (Columbia included) organized demonstrations against the attack’s victims. Ivy league antisemites demanded Israel’s utter extinction “from the river to the sea,” but drew a blank when asked by media, “What river? What sea?” The label “useful idiot” comes to mind.

Civil War of Values: War on Religion

In the cause of societal transformation, Engels famously declared war on religion. For transitioning from the old- to a new- order, he advocated “forcible overthrow” of all existing social conditions. God is enjoined only when His mention serves the cause. To the point, the first director-general of the World Health Organization, Brock Chisholm, necessitated removal of individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas. Margaret Sanger admitted that even birth control is “calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian churches.”

Recently, when a peaceful protester proclaimed Jesus as LORD and King, Kamala quipped, “Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally.” Clearly, Kamala has waged her own war on religion—this, by remaining silent on repeal of the unconstitutional Johnsen Amendment, weakening the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and advancing the radically a-biblical, pro-LGBTQ Equality Act. During the pandemic, Kamala opposed religious exemptions from the vaccine and favored closing churches (but not liquor or cannabis stores).

Conclusion

Ask citizens of Czechoslovakia, Laos, Shanghai, Hungary, Romania, Poland and South Vietnam.

They will confirm that socialism in America is a big deal. Contrary to puppet naysayers, looming threat of next-step communism is by no means dead. Existing communist states include China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea (DPRK). To propagandize that “one person’s socialism is another’s neighborliness” would be laughable were it not such a dangerous mischaracterization.

The inimitable Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us, as Christians, that “silence in the face of evil is itself evil.” Fiddling while one’s nation burns is not biblically defensible. When informed Christians speak, stand and vote for issues (not personalities)—this, in alignment with God’s Word— “the lot is cast into the lap”; and “its every decision is from the LORD.” (Proverbs 16:33)

Indicting fear, faithlessness, wrong motive and passivity, King David queried, “Is there not a cause?” (1 Samuel 17:29) Indeed, there is. For American Christians today, informed, principled voting is more than a privilege. It’s a mandate.

© 2024 Debra Mullins – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Debra Mullins: debraraer@comcast.net

By Debbie Mullins

October 25, 2024

The Ekklesia

The Koiné Greek for church, ekklesia, literally means “to call out” or “called-out ones.” It specifically references a legislative assembly, or summoned group. As light and salt, the church is called out from the world to contend for faith on behalf of the proverbial seven mountains of family, religion, education, media, arts/entertainment, business and government. Doing so, the ekklesia functions as a sort of City Council or political assembly whose subjects are afforded keys of the Kingdom (that is, judicial authority) to “bind” and to “loose.” (Matthew 18:15-20) God “sought one to stand in the gap before Him on behalf of the land,” but too often, because of push back, “He found none.” (Ezekiel 22:30)

Christian Nationalism Defined

Propelled by secularism, today’s Cancel Culture specifically targets the ekklesia and its mission. Enter, Christian Nationalism, a faux term that emerged in 2006 and falsely, albeit convincingly accused the church of advancing a theocracy that purportedly oppresses women and all minorities. Dr. Stephen Coughlin fingers at its core the Maoist insurgency model of political warfare being employed by Cancel-Culture companions, Marxist tactics for which include Hegelian Dialectic, gas-lighting, group think, political correctness and social engineering. Under said attack, many Bible-believing Christians willingly self-muzzle so as not to be labeled Christian nationalists. The so-called separation principle fortifies their misdirected posturing.

Separation of Church and State

But, then, a wall of separation is nowhere found in the US Constitution. Nor is it a biblical mandate. Historically, the phrase appeared in a letter by Thomas Jefferson, but it was not intended to restrict the ekkesia’s influencing government. Rather, Jefferson’s clear-cut point was to prohibit government intrusion into matters of the church. In the words of President John Quincy Adams, connecting “in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the precepts of Christianity” is “the highest glory of the American Revolution.” To that point, Supreme Court Justice Douglas explained, “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being … We find no constitutional requirement which makes it necessary for government … to throw its weight against efforts to widen the effective scope of religious influence.”

People of Faith in Government (How Christianity Changed the World, Alvin Schmidt)

Throughout history, Christians have influenced government for good. For example, their efforts led to outlawing child abandonment, infanticide and abortion in Greece; cruel gladiatorial contests in Rome; human sacrifice, pedophilia and polygamy among European cultures, and burning widows in India. More than two-thirds of the leaders in the Abolitionist Movement were Christian pastors who faithfully preached politics from their pulpits to condemn and outlaw slavery. Whenever and wherever the ekklesia fulfilled her God-given legislative call, political landscapes were altered for the good. Case in point: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 trailed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s public condemnation of racial discrimination and segregation.

The Ekklesia’s Civic Duty

It’s true, Jesus rejected the political pathway to inaugurate His coming kingdom, and so should we. Nevertheless, a believer’s civic duties are clearly delineated in Scriptures.

• Old Testament Political Engagement

The so-called “separation principle” was unknown to Old Testament patriarchs and judges, kings and prophets. A “man after God’s own heart,” King David served at the highest level of governance; and Daniel exercised strong influence over Babylon’s government. Joseph held sway over Pharaoh and administered FEMA-like relief in response to widespread famine. Moses was a law-giver, Deborah a judge. At risk of personal peril, Queen Esther boldly lobbied King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) and thereby saved an entire people group. A governor of the Persian province of Judah (Nehemiah) incited national reformation and, following Babylonian exile, led the return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel.

• New Testament Political Engagement

At the very least, New Testament believers are commanded to pray for all in authority, give respect where it is due, submit to godly governance and be ready for every good work. Their struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities and spiritual powers of this dark world. (1 Timothy 2:1-2, Titus 3:1-2, Ephesians 6:12) With these truths in view, the ekklesia’s governmental call was well-modeled by the Apostle Paul. Appealing to protection afforded him as a Roman citizen, Paul boldly challenged the prevailing philosophy of cultural elites at Mars Hill. Even as John the Baptist influenced Herod, Paul likewise brought the Roman procurator of Judea (Felix) to conviction and approached Agrippa to the point of his near conversion.

• American Christians’ Political Engagement

Throughout America’s history, Christians have brought faith into the public square. Early on, Christian patriots boldly crossed the church-state line to birth “one nation under God.” To this end, founder of the Black-Robed Regiment Pastor Peter Muhlenberg took to the battlefield and encouraged others to do likewise. Signing the Declaration of Independence, Witherspoon bowed in prayer; and Samuel Adams stated, “We have this day restored the Sovereign, to Whom alone men ought to be obedient.” Blessed by God, America emerged as the freest, richest, most generous country the world had ever known. Our charge on her behalf is to occupy and steward the land aright until the Lord comes. Biblical citizenship requires a lifestyle of advocacy for truth (loving God), community bridge-building (connecting to Jesus), and cultural/political engagement (serving the world).

One must ask, “What if reluctant people of faith throughout millennia had distanced themselves from politics, failed to engage culture, and remained silent in the face of evil?” What if the ekklesia had shirked her civic duty?

State of the Union

Good government promotes literacy, advances just law, provides religious liberty and allows churches freedom to preach, teach and serve. It is a conduit for furthering the Gospel and human flourishing. In contrast, consider the state of our Union today: Arguably, the church at large suffers escalating persecution from without and spiritual deception from within. More often than not, moral relativism trumps biblical mandate. Given misplaced love of money and pleasure, many are preoccupied with materialism. Youth are seduced by scripturally-forbidden, yet culturally-celebrated alternative lifestyles and “oppositions of science, falsely so called”—i.e., gender dysphoria protocols. Young girls are compelled to forgo modesty along with a fair chance at competing in women’s sports. Increasingly, our culture lacks natural affection—this, demonstrated by influx of human trafficking, open and legal prostitution, quick-fix abortions, no-fault divorce, rampant pornography, sexualization of children, substance abuse and addiction. A culture of death reigns supreme, and a contagion of contention attends political posturing. Despite exponentially increased knowledge, our education system is fatally marred by distraction, confusion, violence and godless indoctrination. In the bogus name of peace, abounding lawlessness invites increasingly totalitarian transnational governance propelled by the spirit of Antichrist. Add to these: Threat of war and rumors thereof, pesky new strains of disease and escalating natural calamities. It would seem that “the kingdom of heaven contained good seed, but while men slept, the enemy sowed bad seed.” (Matthew 13:25)

Fiddling while one’s nation burns is not biblically defensible. So, then, what are we to do? As Jesus addressed political discussions of His day “with a profound sense of clarity,” so must we. The ekklesia has a voice, and she must use it. Perhaps now more than ever. The inimitable Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that “silence in the face of evil is itself evil.” Indeed, when idle silence meets wickedness, the ekklesia misses her calling; and God’s favor is repelled. On the other hand, when informed Christians speak, stand and vote in alignment with God’s Word, “the lot is cast into the lap”; and “its every decision is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33) Indicting fear, faithlessness, wrong motive and passivity, David queried, “Is there not a cause?” (1 Samuel 17-29) Indeed, there is. For American Christians today, informed, principled voting is more than a privilege. It’s a mandate.

© 2024 Debra Mullins – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Debra Mullins: debraraer@comcast.net

By Debra Mullins

June 29, 2024

On occasion, I’m told, an ewe gives birth to a lamb whom she rejects. Spurned, alone, and broken in spirit, the little lamb (called a “bummer lamb”) is destined to die until the Good Shepherd scoops it up, caresses it to His chest, and takes it home to nurse it to wholeness. Once the lamb is strong enough, the Shepherd returns the “bummer lamb” to the flock. Not surprisingly, when the Shepherd calls His flock, the bummer lamb is first to respond!

Distress in Anxious Times

This Good Shepherd is not of this world, nor are we. For that, the world hates us.[1] Ourselves castaways, we are like bummer lambs. The iconic hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, asks “Is there trouble anywhere?” And, indeed, there is. In the words of Thomas Paine, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Prophetically, the global church suffers escalating persecution from without and spiritual deception from within. More often than not, moral relativism trumps biblical mandate. Given misplaced love of money and pleasure, many are preoccupied with materialism. Youth are seduced by scripturally-forbidden, yet culturally-celebrated alternative lifestyles and “oppositions of science, falsely so called”— i.e., gender dysphoria protocols. Young girls are compelled to forgo modesty along with a fair chance at competing in women’s sports. Increasingly, our culture lacks natural affection—this, demonstrated by influx of human trafficking, open and legal prostitution, quick-fix abortions, no-fault divorce, rampant pornography, substance abuse and addiction. A culture of death reigns supreme, and a contagion of contention attends political posturing. Despite exponentially increased knowledge, our education system is fatally marred by distraction, confusion, violence, and godless indoctrination. In the bogus name of peace, abounding lawlessness invites increasingly totalitarian transnational governance. Add to these: Threat of war and rumors thereof, pesky new strains of disease, and escalating natural calamities.

• Squeezing and Binding

We’re not alone. King David also suffered extreme distress. The Hebrew word for distress is yatsar, which comes from an Akkadian word that means to squeeze or bind. I’m reminded of yesteryear’s corsets typically constructed of a stiff material and structured with boning inserted into channels in the cloth or leather. Corsets are held together by lacing. Picture a lady’s maid tugging and yanking on the laces to create for her mistress a coveted, hour-glass shape. And groan.

Aggressive squeezing and binding can reduce lung capacity and contribute to muscle atrophy, skeletal deformities, and uterine prolapse. But I digress. My point being: Potentially debilitating distress at micro- and macro- levels visits us all—male or female, young or old.

Cry for Encouragement

Jesus was clear: “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have conquered, defeated, and subdued the world.”[2] To this, the Amplified translation adds, “My conquest is accomplished, My victory [over the world] abiding.”

Describing the quaking earth’s giving way and mountains falling into the heart of the roaring, foaming sea, the psalmist acknowledges God as a fortress and ever-present help in trouble.[3]

Accordingly, numbers of Greek words in the New Testament convey the concept of Holy Spirit’s coming alongside in friendship to encourage and comfort. As the Spirit’s overshadowing presence surrounded Mary to conceive Christ, Spirit-inspired visions, revelations, strategies and goals are conceived within us. With fruit following.[4]

• Though …, Yet …

Though we, as believers, are bound and squeezed, yet by Holy Spirit presence and power, we overflow with hope.[5] Hope serves as a firm, secure anchor for the soul; therefore, we’re commanded to hold to it staunchly.[6] Faith is the substance, or support, of that hope.[7]

Etymologically, “David” means “beloved”; “Habakkuk means “ardent embrace.” In the face of impending judgment at the hands of Babylon and the Amalekites, respectively, Habakkuk and David cleaved to the Lord and encouraged themselves in the love of Him.[8]

Still, in the face of injustice, the prophet Habakkuk lamented, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and You will not hear?”[9] Habakkuk was a realist. Facing impending judgment at the hand of Babylonians, Habakkuk further acknowledged inadequate harvest workers in empty and barren plow fields—this, coupled with sparce breeding and reproduction of cattle. Yet, by personal choice, Habakkuk purposed to be happy and rejoice.

In fact, the Hebrew rendition of Habakkuk 3: 18-19 depicts his jumping for joy and spinning about in glee! Through it all.

In like manner, King David encouraged himself while dancing in abandon before the LORD with shouts of joy and with the sound of the trumpet.[10] He was, indeed, a “man after God’s own heart”!

• Strength in Encouragement

The word for “encouraged” means “to strengthen like becoming a rock.” Its Semitic root carries the idea of binding. To bind to an enemy is to be discouraged, but to bind to God is to be strengthened in encouragement. Habakkuk and David both stood before God, bound themselves to Him, and thereby rested encouraged in His presence. Their first thought was God, their rock, their strength, their fortress, and their deliverer.[11]

How to Encourage Ourselves

As David and Habakkuk, we too must encourage ourselves. This we do in numerous ways.

• Is There Trouble Anywhere? Take It to the LORD in Prayer!

It’s been rightly said, “Worry is a conversation you have with yourself about things you cannot change. Prayer is a conversation you have with God about things He can [and will] change!” With this in view, we bypass anxiety and, in prayer and petition, present our requests to God—always with thanksgiving![12]

• Positioning Ourselves Aright

I am “the joy set before Him,” and He is the great I AM.[13] This heartening dynamic invites me to take my rightful place and grasp the emboldening, hope-filled future that God has for me.[14]

By standing with Jesus, gazing upon His beauty, and inquiring of the LORD in His temple, I encourage myself.[15]

Consider John the Baptist who identified himself as “the one who comes before Him.” John was Jesus’ “best man,” if you will. He took his rightful place close by the heavenly Bridegroom. Traditionally, when the voice of the groom is heard, the best man is swept up in the joy of the moment and takes his place center stage along with the bride and attendants, who, in turn, “step to His side.”[16]

While living in the State of Kuwait, I attended a traditional wedding of the Prince of Bahrain with a Kuwaiti royal. This festive occasion uniquely and emphatically demonstrated preeminence of the bridegroom in Eastern culture. Though gloriously and royally arrayed, the demure bride sat to the side and, compared to a Western bride, was afforded little attention. The wait was LONG but, at the bridegroom’s entrance, sheer delight was unmistakable. Strong emotion was expressed in high-pitched, vocal howls, called ululation or trilling, as the wedding party exploded in excitement!

At the side of our heavenly bridegroom, with all eyes fixed on Him, we encourage ourselves in the unflappable hope of what is to come.[17] Doing so, we are strengthened, empowered, encouraged. Our Lord will make our feet like the deer’s that in Him we might tread on (and soar in) high places.[18]

So, then, let’s hear a trill or two!

• Meditating on the Word and Taking All Thoughts into Captivity

I’m told that, every day, we entertain some thirty thousand thoughts. Lassoing those thoughts, we purpose to think continually on things that are excellent (virtuous) and praiseworthy. Centering our minds on these, we naturally encourage ourselves in the LORD.[19] His Living Word forms and feeds our thoughts. renews our strength, catapults us to glory, and enables us to “run and not be weary, walk and not faint.”[20]

In reading, studying, meditating, and thereby filling our minds with the Word of God, w e bring all thoughts into alignment with it. Moreover, we renew our minds with a fresh attitude, mentally and spiritually.[21] “Perfect peace” follows.[22]

We need only fix our thoughts on what is:

a. true (honest)
b. honorable (venerable, noble, dignified, worthy of respect)
c. right (just)
d. pure and lovely
e. admirable (of good report/repute, commendable).[23]

• Disciplining Our God-Given Senses

Twit Believers also encourage themselves by disciplining their God-given senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste). Sight ranks strongest of the five senses, and no wonder. World-renowned eye surgeon, Dr. Ming Wang (Harvard, MIT) contends that there is absolutely no way the eye’s amazing and logical arrangement of photoreceptors, ganglion cells, and neurons could ever evolve from a random compilation of cells. Darwin himself acknowledged that the complexity of the eye had potential to undermine his theory in its entirety.

Arguably, complexity of a human eye is the most powerful evidence of the existence of God. What we watch, in person or electronically, inspires and shapes our thoughts toward Him. What we choose to behold with the gift of sight can greatly encourage, on one hand, or defile on the other. Little Sunday school children sing about “being careful, little eyes, what you see.” Good comes from disciplining our God-given senses.

• Seeking Divine Input

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is renewed day by day.[24] With that in view, our charge is to seek and receive Divine input, looking not to the things that are seen, but rather to things unseen by the human eye.[25] When we remain open to God’s still, small voice, He communicates in dreams and visions, prophetic words, and exhortation. Added to fitting words in due season, God-dropped words of knowledge, wisdom and revelation afford discernment, leading and access to the very mind of Christ. In receiving Divine input, we celebrate our light, momentary affliction as preparation for “an eternal weight of glory.”[26]

• Eschewing Demonic Input

Enter, deception. The Bible warns that believers, too, can be enticed by evil desire and thoughts that the enemy implants directly into the mind.[27] Take Judas, for example. Scripture tells us that “Satan entered Judas.”[28] Notwithstanding, when Judas secretly betrayed Jesus to His enemies, he alone was responsible for his actions.

In contrast, by eschewing demonic input, we defeat all nefarious plots and encourage ourselves with experiential knowledge that the One in us is greater than he who is in the world![29]

To bypass shame, we set our faces like flint (a stone or hard rock).[30] In other words, we unyieldingly harden our countenance and, with unshakable resolve, soundly refuse the enemy’s suggestions. By intentionally rejecting demonic input, we effectively overcome the world and its pull.[31]

• Accessing Stored Memories

Theoretically, our brains hold more information than over 4,000 iPhones. Imagine this: The Comforter brings all things to our remembrance.[32] By retrieving and recounting memory of God’s wondrous works, we can’t help but encourage ourselves and, in turn, edify others. In fact, remembering is scriptural. After God’s people passed to the other side of the Jordan River, God commanded twelve men, one from each tribe, to carry stones from the river on their shoulders and, with them, to set up a memorial to mark God’s fulfilling His promise to bring Israel into the Promised Land. This marker declared God’s mighty works to future generations.[33]

By way of application, re-reading my written testimony brings to remembrance God’s working in my own life. Rehearing and remembering the Lord’s goodness encourages me in this life and, as a bonus, leaves a legacy in the wake of it!

• Being an Encourager to Others

Barnabas was literally the “son of exhortation.”[34] The Biblical word, “exhort,” speaks to employing strong encouragement while urging action. It carries with it the sense of pushing forward. Today—all the more as we see the Day of the LORD approaching[35]—sons and daughters of exhortation encourage and propel action with firm belief that He who began a good work in us, in fact, will complete it.[36]

Conclusion

Bummer sheep are born into trouble as the sparks fly upward[37] but, gratefully, they are rescued, nurtured to wholeness, and bound to their Good Shepherd to gain strength like a rock to fulfill their Shepherd’s bidding.

The Lord’s flock consists of restored bummer sheep charged with the task of encouraging themselves.

After David’s example, we encourage ourselves in prayer, establishing right relationship with God, and meditating on His Word. In the face of impending distress, we overcome the tug of sensuality, take captive our wayward thoughts, and vigorously eschew demonic input. By thinking continually on things that are excellent (virtuous) and worthy of praise (praiseworthy), by centering our minds on these and implanting them in our hearts, we encourage ourselves in the LORD, seek and remain open to Divine input, entertain glorious testimony, and reach out to encourage others.

In all things, we rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say, “Rejoice!” Because the LORD is near, we are anxious for nothing while encouraged in all things![38] Jesus commands us to “take heart,” or be encouraged. Why?

Because He has overcome the world.[39]

We have reason, do we not, to jump up and spin about in exuberant glee?[40]

Be encouraged, little flock!

© 2024 Debra Mullins – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Debra Mullins: debraraer@comcast.net

Footnotes:

1 John 17:14-19
2 John 16:33
3 Psalm 46:1-3, 7
4 Luke 1:35
5 Romans 15:13
6 Hebrews 6:19, 11:1, 10:23
7 Hebrews 11:1
8 1 Samuel 30:6
9 Habakkuk 3:17-18
10 2 Samuel 6
11 Psalm 18:1-2
12 Philippians 4:6-7
13 Hebrews 12:2
14 Jeremiah 29:11-13
15 Psalm 27:4
16 John 3:28-30, The Voice
17 Psalm 16:8
18 2 Timothy 4:17; Habakkuk 3:19
19 Philippians 4:8
20 Isaiah 40:28-31
21 Ephesians 4:23
22 Isaiah 26:3
23 Philippians 4:8
24 2 Corinthians 4:16
25 2 Corinthians 4:18
26 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
27 James 1:14
28 Luke 22:3
29 1 John 4:4
30 Isaiah 50:7, Ezekiel 3:8
31 Psalm 119:114-115
32 John 14:25-26
33 Joshua 4:1-3
34 Acts 4:36
35 Hebrews 10:24-25
36 Philippians 1:6
37 Job 5:6-7
38 Philippians 4:4-6
39 John 16:33
40 1 Samuel 30:6

By Debra Rae

August 30, 2022

Seattle Pacific University self-identifies as “a nationally ranked, private Christian liberal arts university in Seattle.” Never mind that SPU was named a “Best National University” for the sixth year in a row (US News & World Report, 2022). According to The Seattle Times, the biblical worldview traditionally held by Seattle Pacific represents a competing, “worst impression” version of American Christianity that, presumably, is not to be tolerated.

SPU’s fatal flaw? It’s not “woke.”

One-way Tolerance

The term “toleration” refers to conditional acceptance of (or non-interference with) another’s beliefs, actions or practices considered erroneous, but “tolerable.” For a student to attend SPU to the point of graduation presupposes toleration of the school’s core values.[1] But never mind that. Rather than show the respect due a graduation ceremony, a large number of woke seniors handed a pride flag to interim President Pete Menjares and refused to shake his hand.[2]

Two-way Tolerance

After twenty-plus years of employment at SPU, a similarly woke staff member I know recently gave notice. Unlike graduating seniors, this she did with professionalism and grace. No doubt she was grateful. When Congress ruled that discrimination based on biological sex (gender) was verboten in 1972, Title IX was embraced by SPU. At the time, binary regulations in Title IX were based on two genders, male and female. The concept, of course, is supported by genetic science (XX and XY chromosomes). It’s biblically sound,[3] and women benefited from it. As did this staff member and many disgruntled graduating seniors.

Since then, the script has since changed. In 2005, HB-1282 mandated that all school districts teach sexual diversity (gay, lesbian, bi-, and tranz, for example); and it forced the Planned Parenthood agenda.  Times, they are a’changing; but rather than add clarity, as activists maintain, proposed Title IX regulation revisions require schools to enforce unquestioned acceptance/normalization of gender-identity (woke) ideology.

Greater Clarity Alleged

By definition, clarification is to lessen confusion for the sake of greater comprehension. We’re told that current Title IX regulations must be amended “to provide greater clarity regarding the scope of sex discrimination” based on sex stereotypes, orientation, and gender identity. Arguably, woke-by-design warrants clarification, but not the “clarification” accompanying new Title IX regulations.[4] Allow me to explain. Goofy ontological theories, self-descriptors, and gender-friendly practices muddy the waters. They do not “clarify” anything close to reality.

• Origins “Clarified”: Born in the Wrong Body

The Bible is abundantly clear that God created male and female (Genesis 1:27); however, to clarify (actually, undermine) this truth, Title IX activists summarily dismiss data-driven science of expert anatomists and geneticists. The Centre for Sexual Wellness self-identifies as “sex-positive, LGBTQIA+ friendly, and kink-competent.” From their site we learn that genitalia do not equal gender. Instead, gender identity is on a continuum.[5]

Woke professionals at Boston Children’s Hospital accept the notion that sexuality is how you feel about others; gender is how you feel about yourself. Astonishingly, they recognize “trans” in toddlers (even babies), thus begging the question, “Are all toddlers ‘trans’ for refusing a haircut and playing with opposite-gender toys?”[6] On the Liz Wheeler show, doctors addressed intervention for being born in the wrong body. One attending physician in the Division of Gynecology at Boston Children’s hospital performs gender-affirming hysterectomies on toddlers, and her colleague surgically creates phalluses for would-be boy toddlers born female.[7] Teaching kindergarteners about gender identity, homosexuality, and LGBTQ issues pales in comparison to these unthinkable practices.

Sadly, the Biden administration pushes “gender-affirming therapy” as “normative treatment.” Therapy includes mutilating surgeries that result in permanent sterilization (as practiced at Boston Children’s Hospital), blocking normal adolescent development, and administering cross-sex hormones.

How clarifying is it for a child to learn that he or she was born into “the wrong body,” resulting in chemical and surgical interventions that force irreversible, life-altering consequences, not least of which are sterility and sexual dysfunction? Chemical and surgical interventions also interrupt healthy development, physically and emotionally, and could heighten loss of bone density, blood clots, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cognitive issues. This is child abuse. Plain and simple.

• Self-Descriptors “Clarified”

Think about confusion engendered when a child grapples with the possibility of being “agender” (with no particular gender, or no gender at all). Perhaps that child is “androgyne,” “third gender,” “butch,” “a crossdresser,” “cisgender,” “gender expansive,” “gender fluid,” “pangender,” “transsexual,” “trans,” “tranz,” “intersexual,” or “gender outlaw.” You name it. Clearly, non-binary self-descriptors are far from clarifying! Hence, the fast-emerging pronoun conundrum. If all else fails, the LGBTQIA Resource Center suggests using “they” when one does not know a person’s gender.[8] How’s that for clarification?

Revised regulations expand the scope of Title IX, without Congressional approval, to include prohibiting “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.” Upholding objectively-grounded genetic science, rather than subjectively perceived identity, subjects one to “sex-based harassment.” Examples are using a child’s given name and biologically accurate pronouns.

One 2016 study Trusted Source purports that affirming a person’s pronouns (in extension, their gender) lowers depression and raises self-esteem. Really? I find it difficult to accept that children taught PC affirmations, such as “Ze laughed with zir friends, enjoying zir self” will “win friends and influence people” to the point of raising one’s self-esteem.

• “Clarified” Gender-Friendly Practices

Title IX’s gender-friendly practices hardly “clarify.” Imagine your little girl being required to share private facilities with biological males who ostensibly identify as female. Forced to surrender her right to privacy, your daughter is placed at increased risk for harassment and/or assault by gender pretenders with untoward motives. But, wait, there’s more. Under Title IX, the age of opportunity for talented girl athletes will cease as girls are forced to compete unfairly with biological males whose stature and strength create significant risk of injury for girls. Add to that the likelihood of being bypassed when sports scholarships are awarded.

Our Charge: Let’s Be Abundantly Clear

• Be Clear: The New Title IX is a Matter of Federal Law

Without regard to parental objections, without notice or consent, school officials will usurp a parent’s rightful authority and intervene with regard to life-altering affirmations and resulting decisions that permanently affect the health and well-being of their children. Parents (caregivers or grandparents) who uphold their child’s biological gender identity, or who deem gender tampering harmful, are likely to be reported to Child Protective Services. The very activists who summarily dismiss data-driven science of expert anatomists and geneticists will see to it.

Make no mistake. The Biden administration’s attempt to expand Title IX has been dubbed “one of the largest, most aggressive social engineering overreaches of the government in America’s history.” And for good reason. It’s tantamount to federally-mandated indoctrination of our children—some seventy-seven million of them.

As federal law, Title IX regulations are not “alleviated by any state or local law or other requirement.” That is to say, these regulations create legal uncertainty about the enforceability of state laws that protect parental rights that conflict with the new regulations. Exploitative activist officials are likely to initiate expensive court action to obtain resolution.

• Be Clear: Woke Tolerance Flows One Way

In a 10-page executive order issued on June 15, 2022, President Biden pledged to defend the LGBT community and declared war on conversion therapy, used to promote state-sanctioned viewpoint discrimination. In fact, LGBTQ-identifying people deserve (and some demand) the right to follow their conscience, even when it means receiving psychological support to diminish unwanted sexual feelings.[9] Biden disagrees.

• Be Clear: Compliance is Non-optional

A school’s failure to follow the new rules is punished by loss of federal funding. To receive free student lunches, breakfasts, and other food items, schools must comply. Boys will use girls’ changing and restroom facilities. Teachers will use inappropriate pronouns for transgender students. Or else. Noncompliance will force some thirty million children every day to forfeit meals. Moreover, regulations will disproportionately harm minority and other disadvantaged children unable to access expensive, private options that bypass the craziness.

• Be Clear: Cost Savings Projections Are Pulled Out of a Hat

The Williams Institute at the University of California–Los Angeles estimates that only six-tenths of 1 percent of the nation’s population identified as transgender (2021). Nevertheless, new regulations mandate schools (K-12) to affirm a child’s asserted gender identity—this, as a matter of federal law.[10] Never mind the small numbers. A maze of bureaucratic functions is deemed necessary—including, but not limited to, designating a Coordinator, disseminating a nondiscrimination notice, adopting grievance procedures, record-keeping, and training. Cha-CHING.

Forget regulatory burdens. We are assured that any costs associated with the shift would be “minimal.” Even better: Over ten years, we’re told, a cost savings will be realized to the tune of $9.8 million to $28.2 million. Of course, the Department pulled these figures out of a hat. By its own admission, the Department cannot possibly quantify in monetary terms benefits of proposed regulations. But, hey, who’s noticing?

• Be Clear: The New Title IX Favors Global Values & Attitudes at Odds with American Culture & Religious Foundation

The reach of Title IX ideology is unquestionably global. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies gender as a social construction that unenlightened people typically describe in terms of femininity and masculinity. In Western cultures, people associate femininity with women and masculinity with men, but this social construction varies across cultures.

The WHO further defines gender-affirming care (GAC) as psychological, behavioral and medical interventions designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity when it conflicts with the gender the person was assigned at birth.[11]

Alas, in today’s Brave New World of gender affirmation, American culture and religious legacy must bow to the god of wokeness. Period.

• Global Soft Law

Updated regulations for Title IX mirror values and attitudes of global soft law—e.g., the G20 education document (Argentina 2018). Betsy DeVos signed on and thereby agreed to “promote the development of curricula … which have a strong focus on …  [global] values and attitudes.”

Keep in mind that regimes of fellow signers are known to torture and slaughter opponents of communism and/or sharia law, but I digress. If this isn’t disturbing enough, DeVos also committed to “foster the inclusion of non-cognitive skills such as socio-emotional skills across the curriculum.” Her educrat psycho-babble is intended to conceal programs of psychological conditioning to bring about the values and attitudes demanded not by “we, the people,” but by the establishment.[12]

• Be Clear: Fundamental Rights Are Forfeited Under Title IX

The U.S. Supreme Court has never upheld viewpoint discrimination. Yet, under Title IX, the First Amendment suffers deadly assault. While civil rights are afforded the woke among us, Bible-believing Christians must surrender the right to “free exercise” of their deeply-held faith precepts, not to mention freedom of speech to testify publicly as to those biblically-grounded beliefs. Whether leveled against religionists or principled scientists, viewpoint discrimination violates one’s First Amendment rights. And that’s no small matter.

For these reasons, I strongly oppose Title IX regulation revisions that require schools to enforce unquestioned acceptance/normalization of gender-identity (woke) ideology; and I encourage others to join me.

Before the September 12th deadline:

• Go to this website: org/title-IX/
• Watch the VIDEO
• Scroll down to HERE’S WHAT TO DO and follow the instructions very carefully

Share this with others.[13]

© 2022 Debra Ray – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Debra Ray: debraraer@comcast.net

Footnotes

[1] Colossians 3:5, Leviticus 18:22, Deuteronomy 22:5 & 23:17, Romans 1:26-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:10, and Jude 7, 10.

[2] Video of spu graduation goes viral when graduates hand president pride flags in protest

[3] Genesis 1:27—Male and female He created them.

[4] ChildParentRights.org/title-IX/

[5] Ironically, the Old Testament pairs sexual anomalies (sin) with “confusion,” and gender dysphoria is defined as an uncomfortable state of confusion.

[6] https://www.womenshealthmag.com/relationships/a36395721/gender-identity-list/

[7] Liz Wheeler Show, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ti21dSzD8mk

[8] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/gender-pronouns#common-pronouns

[9] Bidens LGBTQI executive order seen by some as an attack on civil rights

[10] Bidens LGBTQI executive order seen by some as an attack on civil rights

[11] Bidens LGBTQI executive order seen by some as an attack on civil rights

[12]  http://freedomproject.com/the-newman…agenda-for-u-s

[13] https://www.givehim15.com/post/august-24-2022

Twenty-first century military threats keep countless souls awake at night pondering the “what if’s” of activated nuclear missiles/warheads; high-powered land mines; weather-war strategies; cyber space sabotage; USSR psycho-warfare; Global Magnetic Warfare to electronically incite large populations to unstable behavior, and more. Sadly, most dismiss the single, most powerful weapon known to mankind—namely, the sword, but not just any sword.

Along with a spear, the sword is the most ancient weapon fashioned by man. Dozens of massive battles mentioned in the Bible were fought with swords and spears. In New Testament times, Roman soldiers, in part, assailed their enemies with javelins and darts—this, from a distance—but God does not give that option “to him who overcomes.”[i] Our spiritual enemy[ii] is too close for anything but hand-to-hand fighting; therefore, a spear will not do, nor bow and arrow. Christian warriors need only one weapon—namely, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.[iii]

Weapon of Intimidation

Historically, skillfully brandished swords greatly intimidated enemies because, after all, a sword could slice through body armor, shields of leather or thin metal. Swung with both hands, the large broadsword would hack at enemies; and a shorter, two-edged sword would cut and thrust. Even as God used naked intimidation of threat to deliver the Israelites from their foes, He likewise empowers His spoken Word to fell spiritual rulers of darkness and their dupes. Miraculously, Gideon and his 300 men routed the entire Midianite camp when, on signal, they blew trumpets, broke the pitchers covering their torches, and shouted, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” Before the Israelites even had a chance to reach for swords, God plunged the enemy camp into chaos and wild defeat by setting every man’s sword against his companion.[iv]

♠ Used Offensively

In New Testament times, the Roman “short sword” was worn by the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Roman legions. It was thick, powerful, and efficient for close up combat. A Roman infantryman would go into battle armed with a dagger (pugio), several one-time use spears (pila), and lead-weighted darts (plumbatae). His primary weapon, however, was his gladius. Adapted from a Spanish design, the prowess of the gladius, while engaged in close-range combat, made it a fearsome tool. When sharpened, its dual edges wreaked havoc on unarmored foes, and its tapered point pierced through even the heaviest of armor metal. For good reason, the Roman gladius has become known as “the sword that conquered the world.” Shields and helmets are excellent for defense, but useless for tearing down strongholds. Significantly, the one offensive weapon in the full armor of God is the gladius.

♠ Used Defensively

A boxer restricted to blocking punches will not stand for long! Recall that, when sorely tempted, Jesus responded defensively with a specific, appropriate Scripture; however, offensive thrusts with the Word ultimately prevailed against the lust of the flesh (appetite) and of the eyes (the world’s glory and pleasures), as well as the pride of life (putting God to the test).[v]

A Cutting Weapon

By no means carnal, spiritual weaponry is “mighty through God.”[vi] In its primary function, the sword is a cutting weapon. The written Word (logos) is the basis for specific sword thrusts of the spoken word (rhema). The sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, cleaves a man’s spirit from head to foot. Without fail, it cuts straight to the core of a matter, uncovers Truth, and uses it to surgically remove offending thoughts and actions. Indeed, the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”[vii]

A Symbol of Authority

In the ancient world, a sword symbolized authority. Only defeated generals yielded their swords to victors. As the sword clave to the hand of David’s mighty man in defying the Philistines,[viii] so must the Word of God cleave to the Christian warrior until he morphs, as it were, into a “living epistle,” written “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”[ix] As Jesus countered Satan’s attacks with scripture, we too must also learn to live “by every [word] that proceeds from the mouth of God,” so much so that we become it! The one weapon never to be forfeited in battle is the sword of the Spirit.

A Penetrating Weapon (Inwardly and Outwardly)

Paul preached the Word to Lydia to “open her heart.” As a result, she was converted. Be sure God’s Word has power to penetrate even a hardened, unconverted heart of stone to impart inner wisdom and godly character at the same time it fights despondency and despair. With assured promise of divine impact, the Word likewise penetrates outwardly. Martin Luther acknowledged that it takes but one little Word to fell devils threatening to undo believers. Indeed, that very Word will not return empty without having accomplished God’s desired end. It will succeed in the matter for which God sent it.[x] God’s promises are settled: “Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.”[xi]

Weapon of Spirit (Illumination)

Not made of metal, the sword of the Spirit—more precisely, “the sword that comes from the Spirit”—is the cutting, authoritative, penetrating Word of God. Never does the Spirit contradict the Word, which is spiritually inspired, powerful, and functional for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.[xii]

The Word is Spiritually Inspired

“All Scripture,” we read, is inspired by God.[xiii] The Greek word for “inspired” is theopneustos (2315), combining theo (“God”) with pneustos (“breathed”).[xiv] Therefore, the word inspired literally means “God-breathed.”

The words “breath” and “spirit” are one and the same. God breathed out the Word through human authors with unique personalities and gifts, but the written Word originated with God.

♠ The Word is Spiritually Powerful

The Word is “the power of God unto salvation.” Charles Hodge wrote,[xv] “All [the church’s] triumphs over sin and error have been affected by the Word of God. So long as she uses this and relies on it alone, she goes on conquering; but when anything else, be it reason, science, tradition, or the commandments of men, is allowed to take its place or to share its office, then the church, or the Christian, is at the mercy of the adversary.” The archangel Michael effectively used the “sword of the Spirit,” the Word of God, to rebuke the devil.[xvi] So powerful is God’s Word that, with the breath of His mouth, the Lord will slay and thereby bring to an end even Satan incarnate, the Antichrist,[xvii] who (along with his False Prophet[xviii]) will desecrate all that is holy while, at the same time, deceiving many with lying wonders.

♠ The Word is Spiritually Functional

Skillfully, carefully applied to particular situations, God’s Word is a lamp to the believer’s feet and a light to his path.[xix] When believers exchange their own ideas, or strength, with God’s inspired Word, that Word illuminates the way to accomplish God’s sovereign purposes—namely, to expose sin, save sinners, restore souls, and equip believers for good works.

1.  His Word Accomplishes God’s Sovereign Purpose.

Unlike idle tweeting, God’s Word is unfailingly efficacious, even as “evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”[xx] “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”[xxi] God’s Word accomplishes His sovereign purpose.

2. His Word Exposes Sin to Save Sinners.

God’s spoken word is powerful to slay the wicked,[xxii] but also to save sinners and consecrate the redeemed.[xxiii] In holding up a mirror of God’s holy standard to our soiled hearts and lives, the Word exposes sin.[xxiv] Be they celebrities or politicians, outed sexual predators of late have discovered this to be true. The good news is that exposure can inspire purity. Jesus’ prayer in John 17:17 was that His disciples would be sanctified by God’s truth. “With open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,” we are changed into the selfsame image—this, “from glory to glory,” by the Spirit of the Lord, which is the Word of God.[xxv]

3. His Word Restores Souls.

The Word wounds hearts in conviction, as on the day of Pentecost, when Peter’s preaching of the Word “cut to the heart.”[xxvi] Even more, the law of the Lord is perfect in restoring souls.[xxvii] When our souls cleave to the dust below our feet, God revives[xxviii] and comforts us in affliction.[xxix] In the preface to the Geneva Bible, Puritans noted, The Bible is “the light to our paths, the key of the kingdom of heaven, our comfort in affliction, our shield and sword against Satan, the school of all wisdom, the glass wherein we behold God’s face, the testimony of his favor, and the only food and nourishment of our souls” (cited by Ryken, ibid., p. 154).

4. His Word Equips Believers for Good Works.

The Word of God was made flesh and literally “tabernacled among us.”[xxx] As many as received Him, to them gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.[xxxi] The Word is profitable for those “begotten” or “born” (Greek: gennao) of God to affect “all good works”[xxxii] –notably, evangelizing the lost.

Conclusion

In scaling the complex political landscape of our troubled world, we best keep perspective. Ours is a spiritual battle, not flesh-and-blood combat. As living epistles, Christian warriors use God’s Word—defensively, yes; but more importantly offensively in preaching sound doctrine (not ear-tickling platitudes). Without anointed wielding of the God-breathed, inerrant Word, victory (at every level, on every battle field of engagement) is unattainable. With the Word, we are more than conquerors (SUPER conquerors, as it were!) through Him who loved us.[xxxiii]

Human readiness stages the battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.[xxxiv] All thanks belongs to God, who gives us strength[xxxv] and victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.[xxxvi] When Samson forfeited his strength for worldly pleasure, the Philistines overtook, blinded, and made sport of him. In a final act of God’s grace, Samson’s strength was renewed;[xxxvii] but contrast Samson with David, whom God afforded victory “wherever he went.”[xxxviii]

Though arguably flawed, David persisted in maintaining the source of his strength. “A man after God’s own heart,”[xxxix] he did everything God wanted him to do. In perilous times, as these, we best follow the example of David. Our charge, as Christian patriots, is to know the enemy, yes, but most importantly, we are to prevail in fervent, faith-infused intercessory prayer, impassioned by God-breathed Scripture.

We must understand the times, be awakened to our enemies’ strategies, and sound the alarm as good watchmen on the wall. Our hope in spiritual warfare is to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray always in the Spirit,[xl] remembering that, in the future, those faithful among us shall be awarded a crown of righteousness for having loved His appearing.[xli] Hence, may our joyful, collective cry be, “Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.”[xlii]

© 2017 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Debra Rae: DebraRaeR@comcast.net

Footnotes:

[i] Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26 and 3:5, 12 and 21.

[ii] Ephesians 6:12—“For  we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

[iii] Ephesians 6:17—“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

[iv] Judges 7:20.

[v] Luke 4:1-13 with 1 John 2:16—“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

[vi] 2 Corinthians 10:4-5—“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.”

[vii] Hebrews 4:12.

[viii] 2 Samuel 23:8-10—“… and the LORD wrought a great victory that day …”

[ix] 2 Corinthians 3:3—^“Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”

[x] Isaiah 55:11.

[xi] Isaiah 46:11.

[xii]  2 Timothy 3:16-17.

[xiii] 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

[xiv] Pneustos is the predicate adjective form of the word pneo, which means “to breathe.”

[xv] Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians [Eerdmans], p. 389.

[xvi] Jude 1 :8,9—In a dispute between Michael, a powerful archangel at the same rank in God’s kingdom as was Lucifer, Michael refrained from bringing “railing accusation” against Satan. Rather, he deferred to the spiritual power of God by pronouncing the words, “The Lord rebuke thee!”

[xvii] “Antichrist” refers to a literal man present in type, or picture, throughout history (e.g., in Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero, Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Hussein, Kim Jong-un, to name a few). A latter-day visionary, the Antichrist will become the greatest dictator the world has ever known. In time, he will demand loyalty, even worship (Revelation 7:14 and Revelation 13:7b-8).

[xviii] Future head of the one-world false religious system described in the book of Revelation (17: 5) as “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the Earth.” According to Revelation 13: 4-18, this False Prophet will come alongside Antichrist to cause all – under threat of death – to receive a sort of brand (Mark of the Beast) without which buying and selling will be forbidden in the New World Order. The False Prophet will perform deceiving miracles (16: 13-14) and will kill those who refuse to worship the image of Antichrist (19: 20).

[xix] Psalm 119:105.

[xx] 2 Timothy 3:13-15.

[xxi] Isaiah 55:10-11.

[xxii] “And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4). “Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.” (Revelation 2:16).

[xxiii] 1 Peter 1:23—We are born again by the Word of God.

[xxiv] Luke 12:2—“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”

[xxv] 2 Corinthians 3:18—“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

[xxvi] Acts 2:32-37.

[xxvii] Psalm 19:7, NAS—“The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”

[xxviii] Psalm 119:25.

[xxix] Psalm 119:50; see also, 93, 107, 149, 154, 156, 159.

[xxx] John 1: 1-14.

[xxxi] John 1:12.

[xxxii] 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

[xxxiii] Romans 8:37.

[xxxiv] Proverbs 21:31.

[xxxv] Philippians 4:13.

[xxxvi] 1 Corinthians 15:57.

[xxxvii] Judges 16.

[xxxviii] 1 Chronicles 18:6.

[xxxix] Acts 13:22.

[xl] Ephesians 6:17-18.

[xli] 2 Timothy 4:8.

[xlii] Revelation 22:20.

In a Brave New World of Mind-Expanding Possibilities [i]

At Lapetus Solutions in Wilmington, North Carolina, several insurance companies are testing new technology that pairs facial analytics with additional data to estimate life expectancy. The good news: It’s believed a single selfie can detect early signs of disease. The bad news: Findings could determine an applicant’s qualification for life insurance and/or pricing for it.[ii] Hooking neurons to molecular computing systems may promise better healthcare for psychiatric disorders, measurable solutions for rehabilitating the disabled, and the option of replacing people who work under hazardous conditions; but there’s no turning back from participatory technology.[iii]

The techno-leap to merging human consciousness with machines and brain-to-brain connections is now doable. Notwithstanding frightening ethical implications, futurists fully intend to apply technology toward mapping/electronically shocking the brain, harnessing the subconscious for accelerated performance, detecting emotions, fashioning virtual realities and synthetic genes, and equipping humanity to flourish in space. The name of the game? Let’s Play God.

Dr. Martin Erdmann fingers Technocracy as an up-and-coming, techno-fascist world order. Technocracy describes a totalitarian form of would-be utopian socialism. Once freed from biological restraints, some seven billion mystically connected global citizens are expected to interface with technology as virtual persons who, in turn, create virtual environments in which they expect to rule as “kings.”[iv]

God’s Creation Gives Way to Enhanced Humanity

Arguably, the minds of enlightened futurists have passed the limits of conceit.[v] The Book of Psalms (73:7, MSG) explains: “Pretentious with arrogance, they wear the latest fashions in violence, pampered and overfed, decked out in silk bows of silliness. They jeer, using words to kill; they bully their way with words. They’re full of hot air, loudmouths disturbing the peace. People actually listen to them—can you believe it? Like thirsty puppies, they lap up their words.”

As the saying goes, “Like father; like son.”[vi] Described in the Bible as a beautiful, anointed cherub, Lucifer exalted himself above all others. He purposed to usurp humans as crown of God’s creation; even more, he wanted to become as God. With that very ambition, Lucifer seduced Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit of knowledge. Earth’s first lady learned the hard way that “playing God” rendered no service to her relationship with God, her family, and (over time) humanity at large. Due to self-god delusion, Lucifer fell as lightning from heaven; and Adam and Eve were ousted from paradise.

To this day, proud, haughty scoffers reason: “Perhaps man is not the end product of God’s work. Perhaps man is the by-product of the process which will create God.”[vii] Serving as medium for an emerging worldwide, super-brain trust, cyberspace is breeding what Teilhard de Chardin dubbed the noosphere—i.e., cosmic consciousness. New Age proponents look to a mass, planetary shift from the age of Pisces to that of Aquarius, distinguished by group- or cosmic- consciousness. Having triumphed over matter—first, the geosphere (inanimate matter); then, the biosphere (biological life)—the duly enlightened and highly evolved look to planetary transformation marked by emergence of a new, superior species called homonoeticus.

In actuality, the end goal is to one-up God. Problem is, manipulating RNA interference (RNAi) in order to create designer babies,[viii] for example, is worlds apart from silencing genes for ornamental pigmentation in petunia plants! No matter. The NSF/DOC-sponsored report, “Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance,” and the final report of the President’s Council on Bioethics, “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness,” showcase human enhancement through technology.

To that end, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology successfully implanted a false memory into the brain of a mouse, manipulated to accept as reality what never happened. Given this scientific milestone, researchers see no end to possibilities for reactivating, then tweaking, human memory—or implanting altogether new “memories.” Already on the table are plans to link local groups of machine-enhanced individuals into a collective global intelligence.

In time, it’s anticipated artificial intelligence will enable humans to direct their own evolution by overcoming cognitive shortcomings, involuntary suffering, aging and even confinement to planet earth! “Grand technologies” (i.e., cognitive science, nano-, bio-, and information- technologies) hasten transcendence to the Singularity signaled by a quantum leap manifesting the so-called New Man (homonoeticus).

• The Singularity

Director of engineering at Google, Raymond (“Ray”) Kurzweil is a brilliant American inventor, evolutionary futurist, and author of The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), The Singularity is Near (2006), How to Create a Mind (2012), and more.[ix] Through his “Edges of Life Lecture Series” at the College of Science (University of Arizona), Kurzweil characterizes information processes of technology as being quite predictable.[x]

Correspondingly, for the future to be predicted, he believes, one must take exponential progression into account. What Kurzweil calls the “paradigm shift rate” will allow thirty-two times more progress in the next fifty years than what was achieved in the last fifty. The next horizon includes harnessing artificial intelligence; ultimately, Kurzweil predicts that our brains will be uploaded to the Internet.[xi]

Identifying as “humankind’s best investment” the pairing of futures technologies with cradle-to-grave learning-by-doing, Ray Kurzweil started the Singularity University. Its mission is to educate, inspire and empower global leaders to overcome humanity’s most perplexing obstacles. Key areas of technological change include nano-science and technologies; resource, information, engineering technologies; health, social, educational, cognitive technologies; socio-economic and security technologies. Technocrats’ “wild romp through the future” will impact technology on identity creation and complementary currencies transactions.[xii]

With biological evolution extending through technological evolution, the Singularity marks a point in time when computer intelligence exceeds human intelligence. Without human intervention, machines will become autonomous, maintain themselves, and create new technologies and new machine designs.[xiii]

Freedom Gives Way to Techno-Fascism

In the Technocratic Era, control is the endgame, so what better place to start than with energy? Encompassing generation, distribution and consumption of electrical power (also natural gas and water), the Smart Grid is a global initiative using advanced digital technology to redesign the power grid. Keep in mind that installing Smart Grids in every house and business (worldwide) effectively removes control from consumers and forfeits it to central government.

Supporting an entirely new, resource-based economic system, Network of Things (NOT) technology features wireless, two-way communication among interactive appliances, digital meters and automated substations. In order to subsidize any shortage of energy in neighboring systems, individual customers are temporarily denied access. In reality, what’s deemed best for the common good is but a cover for political decisions that not only decimate personal privacy rights, but also monitor and control delivery and consumption of green resources. Providing equally for basic needs of everyone effectively dismisses right to wealth accumulation, private property, and inheritance.

Nation-States Give Way to Globalism

New York Times bestselling authors and veteran investigative journalists Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott painstakingly unveiled the Obama Administration’s second-term national energy policy that would permanently remake America into a government-dominated state. Unless the Trump Administration purposefully interrupts civilization’s present trajectory, the America of equal opportunity for all, constitutionally limited government, economic freedom and personal liberty will become distant memories.[xiv]

By passively accepting surveillance cameras, police and drug-sniffing dogs in our schools, national databases that track our finances and activities, sneak-and-peek searches of our homes (without knowledge or consent), and anti-terrorism laws that focus suspicion on average citizens, Americans who remain uninformed and unengaged steadily forfeit basic freedoms and constitutional rights ensured by the founders.[xv]

Reflective of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Germany, “at such a time as this,”[xvi] we do well to heed the good pastor’s wisdom: “Not to speak is to speak,” and “not to act is to act.” So what’s it going to be, America?[xvii]

© 2017 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

[i]  Parts 1 & 2: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/debra-rae (Accessed 2 May and 6 June 2017).

[ii] Barbara Marquand. “In the Future, Selfies May Affect Life Insurance” (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 24 April 2017). A9.

[iii] There are countless techno-vations—e.g., direct brain-computer interfaces, biological augmentation of the brain, genetic engineering, ultra-high-resolution scans of the brain, followed by computer emulation. Technologies as these are fast approaching tipping-point sophistication. Bio-pneumatic replacement of brain parts is where we are headed. Over time, we will form new long-term memories.

[iv] Virtual reality involves computer programs that add the dimension of physical participation to visual images and auditory cures. While engaging one’s entire body, participants often wear gloves to manipulate at will three-dimensional, stunningly realistic components of the program. Whereas the experience feels true-to-life, its “reality” is fabricated. Ponder this: In the Bible, we learn that Antichrist will perform deceitful “wonders of falsehood” (2 Thessalonians 2: 9).

[v] Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D., The Power Elite and the Secret Nazi Plan. (Oklahoma City: Bible Belt Publishing, 2013). 101.

[vi] “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it,” John 8:44.

[vii] Michael Breazeale (04/19/2009) with Proverbs 21:24. The “man of sin” in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 “opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”

[viii] RNAi is a system within living cells that helps to control which genes are active and how active they are.

[ix] Ray Kurzweil, Futurist (author, Fantastic Voyage), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f28LPwR8BdY (Accessed 10 May 2017).

[x] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVQ8X0mZCHc (Accessed 10 May 2017).

[xi] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4axEZwLdno (Accessed 10 May 2017).

[xii] Ponder: 2 Thessalonians 2:2 distinguishes Antichrist’s possession of power that manifests in signs and wonders of falsehood. Also: 1 Timothy 6:20—“Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”

[xiii] Ray Kurzweil. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (Viking Press, 2005). 387.

[xiv] Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott. Fool Me Twice: Obama’s Shocking Plans for the Next Four Years Exposed (NY: WND Books, 2012). 28-30.

^xv [xiv] “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14.

^xvi 1 Thessalonians 5:21—“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” Romans 12:2—“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFxDVZjyjeE#t=18 (Accessed 10 May 2017).

Additional information by Debra Rae (https://newswithviews.com/author/debra/):

14th Session of the Provisional World Parliament, 12-19-15

Remaking America for Global Governance, 2-28-15

Eco-Justice EPA Style, Part 2, 9-26-14

Eco-Justice EPA Style, Part 1, 9-23-14

Children of, by, and for the State: A Legal Framework, 3-1-14

2014 Road Map to Global Transformation, 2-7-14

Civilization’s New Trajectory, Part 2, 10-12-13

Civilization’s New Trajectory, Part 1, 10-5-13

World Future, 2013, Part 2, 8-17-13

World Future, 2013, Part 1, 8-13-13

Global Future 2045, Part 2, 7-30-13

Global Future 2045, Part 1, 7-25-13

Kings without Kingdoms: G8, Google-Meisters and Bilderbergers, 6-16-13

Politics of International Diffusion: Our Common Future, 5-4-13

Quiet Diplomacy Toward Our Predetermined Future, 4-20-13

Collectivist Mindset: Recipe for Revolution, 9-7-12

Eco-guiltology and the Yeosu Declaration, 5-31-12

Gaia’s Bill of Rights, 4-28-12
Recipe for Revolution: Mobilizing for Social Transformation, Part 2, 5-22-11

Recipe for Revolution: Mobilizing for Social Transformation, Part 1, 5-15-11

Class Warfare: Then and Now, Part 2, 2-27-11

Class Warfare: Then and Now, Part 1, 2-20-11
Globalism Revisited, Part 6, 1-1-11

Globalism Revisited, Part 5, 12-26-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 4, 12-19-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 3, 12-14-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 2, 11-28-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 1, 11-20-10

Capitalism, Communism, or Commonism: Worldviews in Crisis 7-3-10

Her Highness Technology 7-24-09

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

In a Brave New World of Mind-Expanding Possibilities, Part 1[i]

At Beijing’s 600-year-old Temple of Heaven, facial recognition technology now restricts toilet users from dispensing more than one 60-centimeter (2-foot) section of paper every nine minutes![ii] Most snicker at the notion of unseen TP Police hovering in the shadows when, in fact, China trails Nazi Germany in enforcing technocracy-style neo-authoritarianism,[iii] and the European Union is well on its way.

Human Era Gives Way to Technotronic Era

Regrettably, few diligently track this emerging scientific dictatorship envisioned by Technocrats, jumpstarted by the Carter-Mondale administration,[iv] and thereafter propelled by the Trilateralist-dominated executive branch of our U.S. government.[v]

At the end of the day, an international economic order, called Technocracy, otherwise known as Sustainable Development, is destined to exchange our price-based economic system (free enterprise capitalism) for an energy-based alternative. In 2016, the United Nations released its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Effectively absorbing Agenda 21 and the Millennium Development Goals into a single framework, the “new goals” will be fleshed out through a number of meetings taking place this year (2017). Come July, a high-level forum in New York City will explore ways to promote/strengthen the global Sustainable Development agenda and to enforce it at national and grassroots levels.[vi]

Ever in pursuit of the greater good (holon), Global Trustees stand ready to safeguard earth’s wealth of limited resources.[vii] Presumably to benefit future generations, self-proclaimed “Elders” are poised to ration the planet’s resources in pursuit of natural equilibrium and human egalitarianism. Not elected officials, but rather a “Soviet of Engineers”—elitist scientists, technologists, and engineers—drive global transformation (called “deep transformation”) marked by a highly anticipated Technotronic Era.[viii] In this brave, new post-human world, planetary systems management will instigate a mother load of massive longitudinal databases[ix] informed by a culture of total surveillance.[x]

Rugged Individualism Gives Way to the Tyrannical State

Lessons best be learned from Nazi Germany where all were compelled to “self-coordinate” in line with National Socialism’s guiding slogan: “The ‘public will’ transcends interests of the individual.” Swelling military/police presence hunted down evidence of resistance, and mass shootings backed threats that “whoever lifts his hand against the State must die for it.” Sadly, the German populace at large failed to push back, even on the Night of the Long Knives, otherwise known as Hitler’s Purge.[xi]

Spurred by commensurate passion on behalf of “self-coordination,” the Technocrat’s plan is this: Intricately designed Wi-Fi systems (not human thugs) do the surveilling, targeting, and punishing. Moreover, instead of fiat currencies, the new energy-based accounting system uses “energy certificates,” or Carbon Currency, to control local government units (LGU). The North American geographic region, or Technate (i.e., Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.), huddles under an umbrella of shared management whereby citizens periodically receive equal allocations of available energy that, if not used in timely fashion, simply expire.[xii]

While maintaining full visibility of all consumption data, the Federal Administration sets national, regional, and local distribution and consumption policies to ensure everyone’s “fair share” of rationed energy, gas and water. “Fairly” allocated credits may be applied to goods and services (priced by the energy needed to produce them). Once one’s carbon footprint meets its limit, as determined by Technocrats, further trading is curtailed until the individual’s next allocation.[xiii] Waste not; want not.

“We, the People” Give Way to an Oligarchy

Collectivist society under Technocratic governance demands an oligarchy—namely, a ruling elite of scientists, engineers, and technologists whose alleged superiority guarantees them the right to rule over less gifted masses. Today’s rising version of Hitler’s Übermensch is the biotechnologically enhanced transhuman. Focusing on nano-, bio-, info-, cognitive-, genetics-, and robotic- technologies, neuro-scientists, neuro-engineers, and futurists call upon the U.N. General Assembly to facilitate transition to what’s dubbed “neo-humanity.”

The budding trans-humanist movement is premised on rudimentary belief in Darwinian evolution. Accepting that evolution is true (and creation, a myth), Technocrats misguidedly trust in man’s ability, through technology, to guide/shape the course of human evolution. In theory and practice, gifted scientists direct the evolutionary process.[xiv] With computer-enhanced, godlike meta-intelligence, the New Man frees himself of biological restraints and, then, finds his fit in an anticipated socialistic utopia[xv] for which he is now deemed well suited.

Sliding core values bridge the techno-spiritual gap between trans-/post- humanism and technocratic global governance. The latter is a process of regulatory management, not by representative government, but rather by unelected experts who have no mandate from, nor do they answer to, those being managed.

Beyond creating “a new mankind” that no longer wastes the planet’s resources, futurists expect to develop manageable matter and new energy sources. Flying cars and artificial intelligence round out their vision that culminates in transferring an individual’s personality into a more advanced, non-biological carrier. Android robots serve people in their homes and eventually replace them in industry; hence, increased demand for Universal Basic Income. This system of wealth distribution affords people a monthly wage—simply for being alive![xvi]

The Past Gives Way to a Post-Human Future

To convene in Rome (July 20-22), an annual, academic event, the Beyond Humanism Conference, will further explore boundaries of transhumanism and post-human futures. A number of questions will be addressed: What will humanity be like when technologies are more integrated within the human body? How can evolution be consciously directed through science? Will a post-human cosmic spirituality and philosophy arise? What are the next action steps needed for the transformation of humanity and society?[xvii]

Though soundly applauded, sustainability smacks of neo-feudalism. Broadly defined, feudalism describes Europe’s medieval system of structuring society around relationships derived from “haves” (those holding land) in exchange for service of “have-nots.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Marx and Engels viewed the feudal stage as a necessary prerequisite for society’s overall evolution. Accordingly, fomented class warfare pits landlord against tenant, corporation against worker, rich against poor.[xviii] As a result, forced redistribution of wealth, if not revolution, levels the playing field.

Egalitarianism (naked socialism) provides transition between capitalism (free market; open competition) and communism (common ownership of the means of production; absence of social classes). What results (ostensibly for the common good) is communitarianism.[xix]

More to follow in Part 2.[xx]

© 2017 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Send Debra E-Mail: DebraRaeR@comcast.net

Footnotes:

[i] Parts 1 & 2: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/debra-rae (Accessed 2 May and 6 June 2017).

[ii] Zhang Weiqun, The Associated Press (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 2 April 2017).

[iii] “Made in China: Revenge of the Nerds.” Time Magazine, June 2001.

[iv] Technocracy is the science of social engineering, the scientific operation of the entire social mechanism to produce and distribute goods and services to the entire population. It is a utopian economic system that exchanges price-based with energy or resource-based economics. First used by W.H. Smythe (1919), the term is derived from Greek words, techne (“skilled”) and kratos (“rule”). See: “What is Technocracy?” The Technocrat, Vol. 3, No. 4. 1938.

[v] Founded by David Rockefeller (1973), the Trilateral Commission is a multilateral planning commission within the stalwart of the Eastern Liberal Establishment. Members from three economic superpowers (North America, Western Europe, Japan) seek to unite into a one-world socialist government requiring voluntary demise of American independence. Along with Patrick M. Wood, professor of economics and research fellow, Dr. Anthony Sutton, warned of the Trilateral Commission’s threat to our nation’s sovereignty and financial security.

[vi] Carl Teichrib. Global Calendar of Events 2017.

[vii] The holon is a stable unit within a larger system that is controlled by other holons greater than it. All are in a continuous state of evolution to a higher, more complex form. A holarchy is a complete system of holons. See: Dr. Paul Moller. Holism and Evolution (College of European and Regional Studies, 2006).

[viii] Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1968 book, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technotronic Era, expanded the concept of keeping society under close surveillance and control up to the global level. The Technotronic Era is dominated by an elite whose claim to political power rests on perceived superior scientific know-how.

[ix] Former Danish ambassador and adjunct professor Joergen Oerstroem Moeller has fleshed out what’s considered an appropriate geopolitical model—one that manages “big data,” transcends economic obsession with the social justice model, and pulls anchor out from under the presumed-to-be defunct nation-states paradigm.

[x] The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) provided sweeping reform to the U.S. intelligence community by opening the floodgate for unbridled collection of data in order to build a national repository of information on virtually every person in the U.S. Fusion Centers survey, map, collect and coordinate transmission of local information to the national level. See: Patrick M. Wood. “The Total Surveillance Society.” Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation (Mesa, AZ: Coherent Publishing, 2015). 165-176.

[xi] Erik Larson. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, & an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2011). 19, 37, 48, 54, 57, 58, 63, 64, 75, 77, 78, 81, 117, 129, 135, 177, 188, 232, 306, 317, 320 & 331. See: Eric Metaxas. BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010). 5.

[xii] Thorstein Veblen. The Engineers and the Price System (Batoche Books, 2001. Originally published 1921), 89. Centuries before Christ, the prophet Daniel characterized a knowledge-infused “time of the end” with spot on precision: Then, global power brokers will function as “kings without kingdoms” over regions of the world “divided for gain.” Eventually, these regions will be linked under totalitarian global governance. With a dictatorial Prime Minister at the helm, the feckless dream of planetary utopianism is destined to play out as the mother of all nightmares.

[xiii] According to a Department of Energy brochure, a “Grid Friendly Appliance Controller,” developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is a small circuit board built into household appliances that reduces stress on the power grid by continually monitoring fluctuations in available power. During times of high demand, appliances equipped with the controller automatically shut down for a short period of time, resulting in a cumulative reduction that can maintain stability.” See: Patrick Wood/Carl Teichrib. “Smart Grid: The Implementation of Technocracy” (Forcing Change, Volume 4, Issue 8, August 2010). Pages 13-22. http://fcmagazine.s3.amazonaws.com/Volume%204,%20Issue%208.pdf (Accessed 10 May 2017).

[xiv] See: Abigail Tucker, “How to Become Engineers of Our Own Evolution” (Smithsonian Magazine, 12 April 2012).

[xv] Utopia literally means “no place.” First used in the Book Utopia by Sir. Thomas More (1516), the term speaks to an imagined place or state of perfection.

[xvi] https://www.technocracy.news/index.php/2017/04/26/8695/ (Accessed 10 May 2017).

[xvii] Carl Teichrib. Global Calendar of Events 2017.

[xviii] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/205583/feudalism/261504/Development-in-the-19th-and-20th-centuries (Accessed 23 April 2017).

[xix]In Managing Globalization in the Age of Interdependence, Harvard Business School Professor George C. Lodge coined the term “communitarianism” for what today has emerged as interdependent globalism.

[xx] Additional information by Debra Rae (https://newswithviews.com/author/debra/):

14th Session of the Provisional World Parliament, 12-19-15

Remaking America for Global Governance, 2-28-15

Eco-Justice EPA Style, Part 2, 9-26-14

Eco-Justice EPA Style, Part 1, 9-23-14

Children of, by, and for the State: A Legal Framework, 3-1-14

2014 Road Map to Global Transformation, 2-7-14

Civilization’s New Trajectory, Part 2, 10-12-13

Civilization’s New Trajectory, Part 1, 10-5-13

World Future, 2013, Part 2, 8-17-13

World Future, 2013, Part 1, 8-13-13

Global Future 2045, Part 2, 7-30-13

Global Future 2045, Part 1, 7-25-13

Kings without Kingdoms: G8, Google-Meisters and Bilderbergers, 6-16-13

Politics of International Diffusion: Our Common Future, 5-4-13

Quiet Diplomacy Toward Our Predetermined Future, 4-20-13

Collectivist Mindset: Recipe for Revolution, 9-7-12

Eco-guiltology and the Yeosu Declaration, 5-31-12

Gaia’s Bill of Rights, 4-28-12
Recipe for Revolution: Mobilizing for Social Transformation, Part 2, 5-22-11

Recipe for Revolution: Mobilizing for Social Transformation, Part 1, 5-15-11

Class Warfare: Then and Now, Part 2, 2-27-11

Class Warfare: Then and Now, Part 1, 2-20-11
Globalism Revisited, Part 6, 1-1-11

Globalism Revisited, Part 5, 12-26-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 4, 12-19-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 3, 12-14-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 2, 11-28-10

Globalism Revisited, Part 1, 11-20-10

Capitalism, Communism, or Commonism: Worldviews in Crisis 7-3-10

Her Highness Technology 7-24-09

But Favored by Providence, Part 2

Think about it. For a mouse trap to perform, all component parts—namely, trap, spring, hammer, holding bar, platform—must be present and operate as designed.  If but one is missing, or defective, the mechanism cannot perform its function. Put another way, the mechanism is the irreducibly complex work of a designer. Similarly, the American Miracle is a complex balancing act of converging happenstance orchestrated by the Hidden Hand of Providence.[i]  Historian-author Michael Medved argues that, on all counts, the rise of the American Republic qualifies as a miracle.

Not all were scoundrels, but counted among our nation’s architects were megalomaniacs, agnostics, deists, revolutionaries, womanizers, drunks, and opportunists, many of whom overcame Achilles’ heels to fulfil noble missions. Had one of them discounted some crucial intersection of America’s journey, the Republic itself would have failed. Instead, a succession of impeccably timed acts of nature, coincidences, concessions, and answers to prayer disclose Master design.[ii]

Diversions and Coincidences

Looking back (the 1580s, to be precise), each of three, well-supplied attempts to settle Roanoke Island failed dismally; nevertheless, Calvinist Christians took their chances on yet another perilous Atlantic crossing. Coated in ice, the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Harbor, 250 miles north of its original Manhattan destination. Even before disembarking, the Pilgrims pledged their faith in self-government. Had these adventurers perished, or settled elsewhere, history surely would have taken a turn.[iii]

Both the Revolutionary War and Civil War prompt what-if questions. For its vulnerability, New York was targeted by British aggressors. Insurgents faced lightning strikes, ensuing fires, and a cold, soaking rainstorm. To their wonderment, an imposing black cloud appeared, then began to swing round-and-round as would a horizontal wheel. Quite unexpectedly, the downpour discouraged General Howe from moving forward. Settling and dispersing at opportune moments, a very dense fog rendered the redcoats visible, thereby assisting General Washington’s successful retreat. Remarkably, not a one was killed or seriously injured.[iv]

Keep in mind the American Revolution was a world-shaking conflict that created a wholly unprecedented, self-governing federal republic that to this day has not only endured, but also prospered, under the same basic blueprint. Stunningly, America’s second and third presidents, Adams and Jefferson, both died on Independence Day, fifty years (to the day) from this extraordinary nation’s founding.[v] Had circumstances surrounding the revolution, or its outcome, been different, the Miracle of America would never have happened.

Brooklyn poet Walt Whitman paired Lincoln’s 1860 election with spectacular, unprecedented, seemingly supernatural cosmic events—not least of which an exceedingly rare astronomical phenomenon known as a meteor procession, only four of which have been identified in earth’s entire history.[vi]  Though Civil War threatened its extinction, the Union prevailed. Quite serendipitously, General McClellan became beneficiary of the greatest security leak in American military history. Though known for suffering “a bad case of the slows,” General McClellan moved with unaccustomed determination.[vii] The lost dispatch of intercepted orders effectively halted Lee’s march north and ranked Antietam among the most consequential military encounters ever. This is but one of many accounts testifying to a Hidden Hand at work on the battlefield.

America’s Curious, but Destiny-Enabling Alliances

Among America’s curious, unlikely, but destiny-enabling allies included a Native American, pirates, a former slave, a war-mongering despot, and a “Defiant Peacemaker”! Each played a pivotal role in the Manifest Destiny of our nation.

• Squanto

Schooled in biblical beliefs while abroad, Squanto was likely the only Indian on the continent who had mastered European agricultural technique that, with his help, rescued the new colony from hunger and privation. Even before he confessed, as his own, the White Man’s God, Squanto was an acknowledged “gift of God” to the colonies.[viii]

• Barataria Bay Pirates

In 1811, John Quincy Adams wrote his father, former President John Adams, “The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs.”[ix] The resonant term “Manifest Destiny,” thusly described, made its first appearance after Andrew Jackson won the White House. Bearing anti-pirate prejudice, General Jackson outflanked the British enemy by forging a curious alliance with Barataria Bay pirates!

• Black Napoleon

Unbeknownst to many, the slave struggle in the Caribbean, led by self-educated Haitian revolutionary and former slave Toussaint Louverture, played a singularly decisive role in securing our nation’s future greatness. Having led history’s sole successful slave rebellion, this so-called “Black Napoleon” blocked a French army from reoccupying the Mississippi Valley in an effort to seize the center of the North American continent.[x]

• Napoleon Bonaparte

The original Napoleon Bonaparte gained notoriety, not by giving away, but rather by conquering, territory for his motherland. Inexplicably, he set in motion the largest in history, single-stroke transfer of land that presented the U.S. with a vast track of land four times the size of France. Literally doubling our nation’s breadth, the Louisiana Purchase signaled America’s most beneficial coup since signing the Declaration of Independence.[xi]

• Nicholas Trist, “Defiant Peacemaker”

When Mexicans rejected the Rio Grande as rightful line dividing their nation from ours, a West Point man and former aide of Thomas Jefferson, Nicholas Trist, was tasked with settling the border issue. In signing final documents that ended the Mexican War and awarded California to the U.S., Trist outright defied President Polk (1848). Scarcely a week before California formally passed to the U.S., gold was found! Quelling the President’s ire, the Gold Rush sparked one of the world’s most spectacular examples of wealth creation, thereby forging America’s huge expansion the second half of the century.[xii]

Astonishing Answers to Prayer

Few appreciate how close founders came to failure in drafting and ratifying the Constitution. Enjoining colleagues at the Constitutional Convention to acknowledge the God who governs in the affairs of men, Benjamin Franklin issued an earnest call to prayer that signaled a demonstrable turning point in the contentious debate.[xiii] Without foresight of a silent founder, Daniel Jenifer, the Constitution would not have been ratified. You see, Jenifer uncharacteristically absented himself from a crucial vote so that saving compromise might be reached.[xiv]

In 1815, Ursuline nuns engaged in an all-night prayer vigil whereupon their convent remained untouched by British combatants. Seemingly from nowhere, a stiff breeze arose and drove thick fog into rapidly dissolving patches, thereby exposing “redcoats” with glinting bayonets. After less than an hour of fighting, British forces abandoned the field. Secretary of War James Monroe marveled that “history records no example of so glorious a victory obtained with so little bloodshed on the part of the victorious.” The unforeseen outcome baffled observers on both sides. Incredibly, American bodies were not among the thousands lying dead.[xv]

In his Farewell Address, President-elect Abraham Lincoln called upon “that Divine Being” who attended and assisted him; furthermore, he appealed to the God who acts in history—using even the “accidental instrument” Lincoln characterized himself to be. As president, Lincoln kneeled before Almighty God and prayed earnestly for victory in Gettysburg. “A sweet comfort” ensued, and the rest is history. In his Inauguration Address, Lincoln spoke of “malice toward none; charity for all” in “binding up the nation’s wounds”—timely words for his day and ours.[xvi]

Conclusion

Though guided by admittedly flawed forefathers, America enjoys what some call “luck.” Others take comfort in the hand of Providence bolstering the Miracle of America. Still others spew “hate America” rhetoric in utter contempt of God and for countless patriots who shed blood for the “miracle that changed the world.”

The Bible affirms that, when righteous leaders assume authority, their people naturally rejoice.[xvii] Notwithstanding, despite egregious failings of men, God works for good “to them that love Him” and who are “called according to His purpose.”[xviii] My hope is this: May the flawed, floundering, yet favored rise of our beloved Republic continually arouse American believers to embrace their noble heritage and, by God’s grace, to influence its lasting legacy.

Click Here For Part 1

© 2017 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

[i]   Lehigh University biochemist and intelligent design advocate Michael Behe contends that many biological systems are “irreducibly complex” at the molecular level. By irreducibly complex he means a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.

[ii]   Michael Medved. The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic. (New York: Crown Forum, 2016).

[iii]   William J. Federer. America’s God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations (St. Louis, MO: AMERISEARCH, INC., 2000).514.

[iv]   Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 60-64.

[v]   Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 10-11.

[vi]   Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 295, 296, 302, 350-351, 356.

[vii]  Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 309-312.

[viii] Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 34, 41-47.

[ix]  Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 234, 238-240, 247, 251.

[x]   Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 128-129.

[xi] Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 122, 123, 136, 138-146, 155, 158, 179, 209, 240, 263.

[xii] Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 238, 243, 245-248, 252, 261-262.

[xiii] Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 96, 101, 105-107, 109, 111, 114-116,119, 373.

[xiv] Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 108-110, 119.

[xv] Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 169, 176-177.

[xvi] Michael Medved. The American Miracle, 328.

[xvii] Proverbs 29:2.

[xviii] Romans 8:28 (KJV).

But Favored by Providence, Part 1

Geysers rank among nature’s most impressive displays of hydrothermal energy. Every sixty to ninety minutes, Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park blasts thousands of gallons of boiling-hot water some one- to two- hundred feet into the air. As if orchestrated by some hidden hand, blasts depend on a complex natural balancing act of converging happenstance—specifically, hot rocks, ample groundwater, subsurface water reservoir, and fissures that deliver water to the surface.[i]  Indeed, “He maketh the deep to boil like a pot.”[ii]

America’s birth demanded a similarly complex chain of seemingly haphazard, uncommonly enabling occurrences. New York Times bestselling author Michael Medved quantifies creation of our nation as no mere accident. As if manipulated by some hidden hand, a complex balancing act of converging happenstance produced on cue the most impressive blast of bravado known to mankind.[iii]

The primary function of a root is to anchor a plant. Sadly, in ignoring our national roots, Americans today lack confidence in government, law enforcement, the mainstream media, and public education. Endless entitlements exacerbate crippling debt while social injustice gives way to rampant drug addiction, homelessness, and violence. Coupled with breakdown of the traditional family and transcendent spirituality, real and/or contrived racism and class warfare, crime, and acts of unthinkable terrorism chip away at America’s foundation. For many, doubt trumps hope in the future of our nation.[iv]

We do well to recall that, as late as 1607, America was primitive and nearly vacant[v] but then the United States rose to undisputed leader of the entire free world. More progress was made in the two hundred years following America’s founding than what transpired in the previous five thousand years of human history. While housing only five percent of the global population, America created more new wealth than the entire world combined; and for over one hundred years, she has been the world food basket, having bestowed more dollars in aid and relief than most of the world’s nations combined.[vi]

How Firm a Foundation America’s Roots

What many fail to realize is that our nation’s true heritage actually predates the likes of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams, as evidenced within the first colonial grant made to Sir Walter Raleigh (1584); in the first charter of Virginia, granted by King James I (1606); in subsequent Virginia charters (1609 and 1611); and various ones granted to the other colonies.[vii] From its beginning, America embraced a dynamic success formula guided by four biblically-based points of the American compass—namely, rule of law, individual rights, private property, and American identity.[viii]

Founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles of Spain, St. Augustine in northern Florida has existed continuously since 1565. Settlers were Huguenots—specifically, French Calvinists. In colonizing, they sought escape from persecution to worship the Lord, study the Bible for themselves, and to be led by the Holy Spirit in everyday life—all free from Rome’s interference. Under command of King Philip II of Spain, General Menendez drew a line in the sand, allowing each man opportunity to renounce his faith and live, or cross the line and meet his Maker. Fittingly, Menendez called the river inlet Matanzas, meaning “slaughters.” There, one hundred eleven valiant men of conscience were martyred in what then became a series of massacres. The blood-washed line in the sand, aptly referred to as “America’s hidden treasure,” strengthened the resolve of settlers who drew strength from their principled predecessors.[ix]

Accordingly, the Magna Carta (1215) uniquely influenced the 1620 Mayflower Compact, which in turn shaped the U.S. Constitution fashioned more than one hundred fifty years thereafter.[x] Signers of the Compact promised “all due submission and obedience” to “just and equall Lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions and offices.” Key to the undertaking was being “in the Presence of God and one of another” expressly “for the glorie of God and advancemente of ye Christian faith.”[xi]

Flawed and Floundering Leadership

Even so, each and every founder, settler, parishioner, and citizen was not “Christian” by faith nor “godly” by nature.[xii] In fact, many left a littered trail of vice, personal indulgence, drunkenness, womanizing, flip-flopping, and the like.[xiii] Yet our nation’s leaders unearthed and polished what in time proved to be the jewel centerpiece of some four hundred years of world history—namely, the American Miracle.[xiv]

• President Abraham Lincoln

With less than a year of formal education, the desperately poor Abraham Lincoln was a chronic depressive beset with nightmares and obsessed with ominous premonitions. He had not one favorable word to say about his father. An admittedly superstitious, stubborn atheist in his youth, Lincoln fretted over his checkered heritage of illegitimacy, melancholy, and madness. Fearing his family to have been uniquely cursed, Lincoln wrote and published a poem about killing himself. Our sixteenth president underwent punishing medical treatments and, by all accounts, came within an inch of being “a perfect lunatic for life.” Mary Todd contributed her own emotional baggage to their martial union.[xv]

While Lincoln-Douglas debates set Lincoln on the national stage, the prairie lawyer felt unfit to be president. Prior to his election, Lincoln’s political résumé registered more defeats than victories. For apparent reason, election of the “Rail Splitter Candidate” struck many, if not most, as incredulous. Having penned an agnostic tract (“his little book on Infidelity”)—this, in an attempt to disprove the divinity of Christ—our sixteenth president, once elected, uncharacteristically plunged into prayer, Bible study, and church worship. He who denied sacred authority of the Bible now cherished it as “the best gift God has given to man.” In a word, this “horrid and hideous, ape-like” figure (The Charleston Mercury) was clearly transfigured.[xvi]

In due time, Lincoln’s administration handled the most momentous crisis in our nation’s history.[xvii] Doing so, he united a bitterly divided nation and, according to the DC Daily National Intelligencer, spoke healing words worthy of being “printed in gold.” Under Lincoln’s leadership, the first nation in history explicitly committed to permanent protection of the institution of slavery issued a world-changing announcement crediting God with deciding the issue. Enter, the Emancipation Proclamation.[xviii]

• Sam Houston

Texas might still be a part of Mexico today if “Big Drunk” Sam Houston hadn’t passed through dark years of depression and drunkenness only to earn one of the most astonishing victories in the history of warfare. Houston’s stern Presbyterian upbringing, seasoned with Cherokee spirituality adopted as a teen, gave way to born-again Baptist fervor.[19][xix] Houston established himself as first president of the independent Republic of Texas, and almost one-third of the present area of the American nation (nearly a million square miles of territory) changed sovereignty when America acquired Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma.[xx]

Exceptionalism Demands Special Responsibility

In our nation’s founding, some hidden hand seemed to manipulate a complex chain of seemingly haphazard, uncommonly enabling occurrences. Yale Professor David Gelernter opines, “The American Religion incorporates the biblical ideals of a chosen people in a promised land.” Our nation was considered “the hope of the world,” but the reality of American exceptionalism in no way demands fantasies about American perfectionism any more than Israel’s destiny, expounded in Daniel’s seventy-weeks prophecy, demands human perfection. Moreover, with Divine call comes special responsibility.[xxi]

Mission Accomplished Against All Odds

Against all odds, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln lived to fulfill their life missions. The “Hero of Monongahela,” Washington defied certain death. Two horses were shot out from under him. Bullets penetrated his clothing, and one bullet knocked off his hat. Nevertheless, Washington lived to father our country![xxii]

In the War of 1812 Andrew Jackson acknowledged “the unerring hand of Providence shielding his men from the powers of balls, bombs and rockets,” carrying with them “a mission of death.” He was lauded as “the worthy instrument of heaven’s merciful designs.”[xxiii]

Perpetual danger likewise surrounded our sixteenth president. Recipient of scores of death threats, Abraham Lincoln escaped unharmed despite nearly a dozen attempts on his life following the 1860 election. Once re-elected, Abraham Lincoln unwittingly diverted planned attempts on his life by twice canceling theater plans—once because of a sudden freezing rainstorm; once again to review a regiment of Indiana volunteers returning from the front—significantly, at the National Hotel in Washington, where Booth had recently booked a room.[xxiv]

In an arresting vision (April 1865), Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his untimely demise at the hand of an assassin. Though his closest associates urged him not to go out to Ford Theater, Lincoln went anyway. From a distance less than a foot, a .44-caliber Derringer “pocket cannon” sealed his fate. In a burning barn at a Virginia tobacco farm, the fleeing assassin took a bullet. While Booth’s bullet earned him a name in infamy, Lincoln’s bullet catapulted him to the status of national martyr. Within weeks of his demise, Lincoln’s countrymen viewed the nation itself as born again. All Americans embraced hope that the fallen president represented the final casualty of the war.[xxv]

More to follow in Part 2.

© 2017 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

[i] http://geology.com/articles/geyser.shtml (Accessed 25 March 2017).

[ii] Job 41:31.

[iii] Michael Medved. The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic. (New York: Crown Forum, 2016).

[iv] “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope,” Romans 15:13.

[v] Historian Walter A. McDougall, University of Pennsylvania.

[vi] Medved, The American Miracle, 365-367.

[vii] W. Cleon Skousen. The 5000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World (WA DC: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2006). 1-33.

[viii] Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap, 37, 123, 169, 179, 243, 305.

[ix] Sara Ballenger and Arthur Burk. America’s Buried Treasure: The Martyrs of Matanzas (Herdon, VA: Capitol Hill Prayer Partners, 2004). Chapter 2.

[x] Larry P. Arnn, President. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America (Hillsdale: Hillsdale College, July 2014). 17.

[xi] William J. Federer. America’s God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations (St. Louis, MO: AMERISEARCH, INC., 2000).435-436.

[xii] “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it,” Matthew 7:14.

[xiii] “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like,” Galatians 5:19-21.

[xiv] In 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court established that “our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” See also: Vidal v. Girald’s Executors, 1844; Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892; United States v. Macintosh, 1931; McCollum v. Board of Education, 1948; Lynch v. Donnelly, 1985; Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986, etc. Federer, America’s God and Country, 595-613.

[xv] Stephen Mansfield. Lincoln’s Battle with God: A President’s Struggle with Faith and What it Meant for America (Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 2012).

[xvi] Medved, The American Miracle, 285-297, 339.

[xvii] Dr.James Kubal-Komoto, “The Humble Morality of Abraham Lincoln” (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 20 February 2012). News A11.

[xviii] Medved, The American Miracle, 300, 307,313-316, 323.

[xix] Biblical salvation involves recognition that I am a sinner (Romans 3:23) and therefore under condemnation of death (Hebrews 9:27; Romans 6:23). God requires a moral change of attitude (repentance, Acts 17:30; Luke 13:5), belief and receipt of Jesus Christ as personal Savior/Lord (Hebrews 9:22; 1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 4:12) for me to embrace, by grace through faith, the freely given gift of salvation (2 Corinthians 5:21). Public confession of Jesus Christ and water baptism follow (Romans 10:9; Acts 1:8 & 2:38 39); and a changed life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, demonstrates my newfound relationship with the Lord (Acts 19:5-6; John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

[xx] Medved The American Miracle, 209, 224.

[xxi] The Seventy Weeks of Daniel is a name applied to 490 years referred to in Daniel 9: 24-27, which contains a complete history of Israel from Daniel’s time to that of the Messiah and which discloses Israel’s ultimate restoration as a nation. These Seventy Weeks are crucial to understanding all Biblical prophecy, especially end-time prophecy.

[xxii] David Barton. The Bulletproof George Washington (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilder Press, 1990).

[xxiii] Medved, The American Miracle, 176.

[xxiv] Medved The American Miracle, 336-338, 346,352-355.

[xxv] Medved The American Miracle, 267, 323, 341, 345,348-349, 351,352, 356.

Social Emotional Learning in Public Education

At its convention in Washington, D.C. (2016), America’s “largest, richest, brass-knuckled labor union,”[1] the National Education Association, recently passed two new mental health-related resolutions.[2] While addressing mental health in public education isn’t new, the burgeoning “field” of mental health in schools is.

In general, mental health researchers name five key competencies.[3] While allegedly fostering them, “safer schools” aggressively nurture a culture of shame. For example, to atone for human violence toward the planet, “well” children are shamed into Earth servitude. Kids whose families enjoy affluence, while less fortunate counterparts merely scrape by, are made to feel discomfited. Should a shy girl decline to share a school restroom or shower with an anatomic boy identifying as female, it’s the girl who’s labeled “at risk” for demonstrating “intolerance.”

Given the unexpected outcome of our 2016 Presidential election, edu-clinicians at all levels pulled out all stops by extending recess periods, offering yoga, meditation, and mindfulness work (K-8). Up to and including college level, schools staged “cry-in’s,” “group screams,” and “walk outs.” Some provided nap- and crying- rooms equipped with therapy dogs, coloring books, Play-Doh, and healthy snacks. Disappointment, students learn, is to be coddled and/or acted out in civil disobedience.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) [4]

Through school-linked services (i.e., afterschool programs; wellness, health, and family resource centers), school-community coalitions advocate for social-emotional learning in classroom settings.[5] SEL teaches skills for setting personal goals aimed at working well with others, feeling sympathy/empathy, identifying problems and, while making ethical choices, initiating help-seeking and help-giving behaviors.

Schools are not in the mental health business, yet they are deemed essential partners in the two-fold mission (1) to promote mental health of youngsters and (2) to reshape thinking about mental health.[6]

• Promote Mental Health

With upsurge of SEL, one might reasonably expect augmented resilience. To the contrary, well over half of students in urban schools suffer learning, behavior, and emotional problems.[7] In reality, personal pathology is rare.[8] Notwithstanding, at great expense, onsite mental health clinics continue to pop up; and the vast majority of American schools extend access to mental health services beyond special education to all students.

Because the same entities purporting to promote “mental health” also normalize categories that traditionally qualified as disorders—i.e., homosexuality and bi-, pan-, trans- gender identification/ fluidity—it’s no wonder nearly three-quarters of schools studied reported social, interpersonal, or family problems as most frequent for boys and girls alike.[9]

Reshaping Attitudes Toward Mental Health

With appearance of suicide education in the 1980s, mental health services have continued to multiply.[10] The expressed intent is school-community intervention to (1) nurture overall child development and (2) curtail obstacles to learning. To “reshape feelings” at the national level, health professionals promote urgent, large-scale, systemic reform initiatives.

In 2002, President George W. Bush created the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Congress appropriated funds for early mental health screening but, truth be told, personal pathology is by no means the primary obstacle to learning. Low-bar standards, trumping academics with unmanageably exhaustive behavioral objectives, permissive policies, experimentation with flavor-of-the-month strategies, politically correct nepotism, and countless unnamed variables no doubt fuel the problem.

Mental Health Screening

DSM-1V[11] criteria for mental illness lack clear, empirical support data, and dubious diagnostics force answers likely to yield false positives. Under auspices of “gun violence,” President Obama quietly unleashed a cache of federal dollars toward ordering mental health testing for youngsters. With no evidence supporting reduced suicide attempts or mortality as a result of its extended use,[12] the Columbia University-based program called TeenScreen was used to detect depression in students at risk of suicide, anxiety disorders, and drug/alcohol abuse. Last month it was announced, “The National Center will be winding down its program at the end of this year.”[13]

All too often, voluntary, informed, and written parental permission for administering mental health screening is bypassed. Even for religious reasons, parents in Nebraska and West Virginia are denied the right to refuse screening.[14] Flexibility as to who administers and scores tests should raise further concern. There are reported instances of underhanded methods used to coax kids into “voluntary” participation.

An inadequately trained administrator is tempted to view common emotional and behavior problems as “symptoms” to be designated as disorders.[15] Comprehensive search for some “hidden” anomaly suggests need for mental illness to be “ferreted out and captured like a rabid animal.”[16] Once “caught,” the culprit is tagged, but applying labels from the constantly expanding list (i.e., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant and/or adjustment disorders, learning disabilities, and depression) tends to skew public policy. Case in point: Since 1995, the number of children diagnosed as bipolar has increased by forty percent. Predictably, there are increasingly more referrals than can be served.

Diagnosis and Remediation

Assessments invite misdiagnoses coupled with expensive, sometimes unwarranted interventions.[17] In actuality, “connecting kids with treatment” is code for prescribing psychotropic drugs, resulting in dangerous, “off-label,” prescriptions (not intended for pediatric use), over- and/or mis-medication. Remarkably, in 2012, multiple prescriptions for children exceeded spending on antibiotics or asthma medications.[18]

Most pscho-active medicine is no more effective than placebos yet, when used by minors, antidepressants pose calculable risk. Disturbingly, the Bush commission linked mental health examinations with “state-of-the-art” treatments using specific medications (e.g., antidepressant and anti-psychotic drugs) for specific conditions.[19]

As drug coercion becomes a condition for public school attendance, noncompliant parents fear they will face charges and/or unwelcomed intervention of Child Protective Services. Despite protest, the NEA continues to urge affiliates to support legislation at all levels (community, state, and national).

Follow the Money

There’s good reason why schools typically don’t assign high priority to mental health services. Simply put, school-financed student support services do not reflect the school’s essential mission. Nevertheless, the Federal Department of Education and Centers for Disease Control persistently advocate for federal initiatives that advance “full-service” schools.[20]

Among the top five funding sources is Medicaid. Wraparound mental health services effectively rob from Peter to pay Paul. Given the political-pharmaceutical alliance that operates for monetary gain, conflict of interest is to be expected. By way of example, TeenScreen advisory board members served in leadership positions for at least two entities heavily funded by drug-company “educational grants.”

Cradle-to-Grave Monitoring and Intervention

Results of routine, comprehensive mental health screening for every child, preschoolers included, are integrated with electronic health records. Longitudinal national electronic databases, including treatments and personal family information, can be accessed by insurance companies, federal and state agencies, special interest groups, and eventual employers. Even fictional “mental disorders” follow a child for life. Without parental consent, DNA data collected on newborns through KIDSNET in Rhode Island are linked to educational databases.[21]

In conclusion, the late President Ronald Reagan got it right: “The most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”

© 2017 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. Forbes magazine.
2. Resolution B-66 advances competencies relating to decision-making, self and social awareness/management skills. Resolution C-5 showcases comprehensive school health, social, and psychological programs/services, pre-K through higher education. Education Reporter, Number 367, August 2016. 3-4.
3. Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor & Schellinger, 2011.
4. Http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu (Accessed 19 November 2016).
5. Greenberg et al., 2003; Hawkins, Kosterman, Catalano, Hill, & Abbott, 2008.
6. E. Marx and S. Wooley with D. Northrop (Eds.). Health is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs (New York: Teachers College Press.1998).
7. University of California at Los Angeles, 2003.
8. Howard S. Adelman, Ph.D. and Linda Taylor, Ph.D. “Mental Health in Schools and Public Health.” Public Health Reports 2006 May-June 121(3). 294-298.
9. Foster et al., 2005.
10. Education Reporter, Apr.-May 1987.
11. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
12. Education Reporter, Number 309, October 2011. 1,4.
13. Teenscreen shuts down. (Accessed 12 December 2016).
14. Education Reporter, Number 359, December 2015.
15. Adelman, 1995a; Adelman & Taylor, 1994; Dryfoos, 1990.
16. Alliance for Human Research Protection, The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 8-01-04.
17. Lyon, 2002.
18. Education Reporter, Number 316, May 2012.1.
19. Education Reporter, Number 316, May 2012.1,4.
20. For example, grants programs for the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems.
21. Howard S. Adelman, Ph.D. and Linda Taylor, Ph.D. “Mental Health in Schools and Public Health.” Special Report on Child Mental Health, Volume 121, May-June 2006. 294.

Social Emotional Learning in an Era of Entitlement

The National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health reports that one in five American children experiences social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges. In the wake of America’s 2016 Presidential election, this statistic presumably spiraled as tearful youth showed themselves unable to cope with the outcome of our democratic process. Widespread meltdown inflicted adult counterparts who fared no better.[1] Defeat simply was not acceptable.[2]

Weak-in-the-knee response stands in stark contrast to the rugged individualism modeled in the Old West. Charles Portis’ novel, True Grit (1968), recounts a perilous wilderness journey undertaken by a tenacious 14-year-old girl. Seeking the murderer of her father, Mattie gains respect of the toughest deputy US Marshal whom, for his true grit, she recruits to help get the job done. In the face of grievous loss and severe hardship, Mattie remains tough as nails.[3] Rather than sulk or wither in defeat, she maintains keen focus and, when thwarted, courageously doubles her efforts.[4]

Not so in post-election America. More akin to Chicken Little, bummed kids have given way to depression, fear, and anxiety as if they’d heard too many scary bedtime tales of some terrifying Orange Monster, who swallowed sixteen lesser monsters in order to grasp rule of the kingdom.[5] No doubt kids’ responses mirror reactions of their parents and teachers.[6] Few among us escape the dogged drama of what Gregory Johnson calls “a myopic, cult-like sectarian, neo-liberal cocoon of copy-and-paste journalism.”[7]

It’s no wonder a Washington, D.C. clinical psychologist told The Atlantic that his clients are showing higher levels of dismay over the election outcome than what he’d previously observed in 25 years of practice. NBC news reported that Democratic staffers were so distraught that “therapy dogs,” including two golden doodles, were brought to Capitol Hill to help the bereaved cope with reality.[8]

The Therapeutic Classroom

To soften knowledge that, indeed, the sky is falling, educators at all levels pull out all stops by extending recess periods, offering yoga, meditation, and mindfulness work (K-8).[9] It is undetermined how many youngsters have even the faintest grasp of issues at stake, but no matter. Teachers dutifully create exercises (brainstorming, roleplaying, and listening circles) designed to help youngsters work through their presumed grief. Doing so, educators emphasize “soft skills,” such as being introspective and reflective—hardly the stuff of rigorous classical education. But I digress.

In a district-wide letter to teachers and parents, Boston Superintendent Tommy Chang offered students and staff a gaggle of counselors to assuage their seemingly inconsolable heartache. Chang tweeted, “Students, we [heart-emoji] you. You are intelligent and beautiful. We are here for you today and always. Please share your feelings today.”[10]

Coddled Campus Crybabies

Immediately following the election, college campus crybabies were equally coddled. Students at Cornell University staged a “cry-in,” and Yale University officials helped students vent their “internalized stress” by hosting a “group scream.” One Professor at Palo Alto University led post-election “Whine and Wine” group therapy, and free hugs accompanied community speak-outs. Troubled Yale students were excused from midterm examinations, and Berkeley students walked out of classes.[11] Lesson learned: Life’s obligations take back seat to one’s feelings.[12]

Other US campuses organized therapeutic poetry readings. Distraught pupils were ushered into binky optional nap- and crying- rooms equipped with adult coloring books, play dough, and healthy snacks. The University of Kansas provided the comfort of therapy dogs; others served cookies, tea and/or hot chocolate.[13]

As a reminder that “people matter,” the Princeton Public Library created a blank wall for Post-it messages, and the William F. Laman Public Library in North Little Rock, Arkansas, created tear-off posters with individual messages of encouragement to reinforce how “awesome” kids are. Students at the University of Iowa were blitzed with handwritten condolence signage.[14]

“Yes!” to Tantrums (Acts of Defiance, Even Civil Disobedience)

Elite New York schools turned a blind eye to violent, anti-Trump protests and walk outs, staged by disgruntled youth and fostered by adult enablers. To spare delicate sensibilities of staff and students, college campuses censored Trump signs and slogans, deemed unnecessarily unsettling to bereaved liberals; and some schools tolerated “F— Trump” Protests. At the University of Texas, representatives of the local Communist Party were permitted to march openly with khaffia-wearing pro-Palestinian groups; however, in the name of peace and harmony, conservative voices were restricted on the University of Rochester campus.[15] Why? Right-leaning messages might crush an already fragile student body refusing to acknowledge Trump as their President Elect.

Dog-Whistle Politics and Sexism

The Presidential election offers a perfect venue for students to cultivate flexibility and true grit by accepting what they cannot change, sorting fact from fiction, and making the most of disappointment, but: Rather than review and applaud America’s election process, rather than guide students to accept defeat, educators instead resorted to excessive coddling, all the while decrying dog-whistle politics and sexism.[16] Using tweets, a video, and a poster, students examined policy goals of the Black Lives Matter Movement.”[17] Another classroom activity included creating a timeline for protests against racial injustice and police killings, as initiated by NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.[18]

SEL to the Rescue

Most agree that the staggering pace and ever escalating intensity of 21st century life warrants special attention. Healthy coping requires a unique skill set, hopefully nourished and reinforced early on in the home and at school. That said parents are best equipped to discern and capitalize on unique distinctions of their own child’s psyche, temperament, sensibilities, and the like.[19] Accordingly, a perceptive parent intervenes to shape his child’s character, set behavioral standards, affirm good choices and, when necessary, correct poor ones—always in a manner consistent with the child’s age, gender, and emotional constitution. Unfortunately, too many parents have absconded this role in deference to organs of the Nanny State.

Traditionally, competition, honest evaluation and correction, a deserved “atta’ boy,” and encouragement to “buck up” went a long way toward establishing what today is called “emotional intelligence.” It’s thought that grasp of how words, actions, facial expressions, and body language affect relationships measures one’s “emotional intelligence.”[20]

Today’s version of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) claims to teach skills for setting personal goals aimed at working well with others, feeling sympathy/empathy, identifying problems and, while making ethical choices, initiating help-seeking and help-giving behaviors.[21]

This is all well and good, but my questions are these: How are social-emotional benchmark objectives working for kids? Is cooperating with others really accomplished by staging walkouts? Must the focus of sympathy/empathy favor a limited subset of likeminded people? Do political pundits and mainstream media anchors reflect, or instead set, universal behavioral standards? How age appropriate are help-seeking and help-giving behaviors that promote university level “cry-ins” and “group screams”? Lastly, what “ethical” choices rightly affirm “F— Trump” protests and censorship?

Research has shown that learning from failure is a key to success, but it would appear that, unless ascribed to an opponent, failure is no longer an option. Rather than deal with reality, students learn that defeat and disappointment are to be coddled and/or acted out in temper tantrums. In a word, “true grit” is passé. To that, I say, “Come on, America! We can do better than this.”[22]

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item12873 (Accessed 15 November 2016); “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing, 2 Corinthians 4:8 (NAS 1977).
2. “For a just man falls seven times, and rises up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief,” Proverbs 24:16 (AKJV).
3. “Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the LORD do what is good in His sight,” 2 Samuel 10:12 (NAS).
4. True Grit. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
5. The Tale of Election 2016 w/ Benedict Cumberbatch. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
6. “Then you will prosper, if you are careful to observe the statutes and the ordinances which the LORD commanded Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and courageous, do not fear nor be dismayed,” 1 Chronicles 22:13.
7. Post-Election Fear and Trauma Among College Students and Youth. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
8. Therapy dogs visit capitol hill to relieve post election stress. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
9. In a research article by Meiklejohn, Phillips, Freeman, et al (Integrating Mindfulness Training into K-12 Education, 2012), authors share neurobiology research suggesting sustained mindfulness practice can enhance attention and emotional self-regulation skills.
10. Boston schools offer counseling support for students (Accessed 15 November 2016)
11. Deep radio whine and wine post election group therapy. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
12. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things,” 1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV).
13. Post election liberal meltdown cry-ins, therapy dogs. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
14. Post election library. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
15. Post election group therapy. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
16. Talking abour race without taking abour race. (Accessed 15 November 2016)
17. Black Lives Matter lesson series. (Accessed 14 November 2016)
18. Kaepernick & Fellow Athletes Take a Stand. (Accessed 14 November 2016)
19. “Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it,” Proverbs 22:5-7 (AMPC).
20. Imotional Intelegence (Accessed 16 November 2016)
21. Social Emotional Learning (Accessed 16 November 2016)
22. “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence,” 1 Timothy 2:1-2 (NKJV).

Chances are, as a Baby Boomer, you’ll be called upon, if you haven’t already, to undertake the advocacy and care of an elderly loved one.[1] Over seven million Americans, aged sixty-five and older, have long term care needs; and forty-two million Americans—about one in four U.S. households—are currently caring for aging family members. In fact, middle-aged adults, referred to as “the sandwich generation,” commonly spend more time caring for their parents than their own children.[2]

Though the task is daunting, valuable information can be gleaned from peers who have found their way through the multi-faceted maze of elder care. Having done so, I’ve learned nothing, if not this: Growing old is not for sissies, and elder care is no one-person job! Try as you might, you cannot do it alone.

Getting Started

More often than not some crisis will jumpstart the care process. Maybe it’s identity theft,[3] a fall, or a debilitating diagnosis. Urgency screams and, like it or not, “tag, you’re it!” Whether from a proactive, or reactive posturing (the former preferable), you will take the reigns; and, most assuredly, life will never again be the same for you, or for your loved one.[4]

Not to be caught unaware, wisdom compels us to educate ourselves[5] and, even more importantly, to start the dialogue early and keep it going among family members, our loved one(s), and health care providers. Early on, it’s important to fashion a care team, under a designated quarterback of sorts, to oversee and evenly distribute responsibilities that complement skill sets among participants. Straightaway consult your loved one’s doctor to establish a baseline for comparison purposes.

From the get-go engage the care team in an ongoing quest for vital information (end-of-life preferences, loved one’s story to pass down to grandkids, the legacy he/she envisions leaving; distribution wishes for family treasures, photos, books, jewelry, memorabilia) and, in doing so, log contact information for relatives, neighbors, friends, and health care professionals.

Work at achieving consensus among team members upon balancing the elder’s basic rights to dignity and self-sufficiency with the onset of dementia or some debilitating physical impairment. Safety is always the number one consideration. Keep in mind that shifting sands of some “new reality” constantly present. Permanent change, requiring timely intervention, can (and likely will) take place in the blink of an eye. For this reason, you must continuously assess your loved one and his/her surroundings, looking out for red flags that signal and/or fasttrack that “new reality.”[6]

Communication and Dialogue

While the loved one can coherently communicate wants and needs for him/herself,[7] discuss current and potential issues and options.[8] Those who refuse to establish their preferences, while they are able, will of necessity have life-changing decisions (some not to their liking) made for them.[9] For this reason, it is imperative to work through the loved one’s resistances—if necessary, with professional counsel.[10] Consult a geriatrics physician to direct you to referral services and/or a consult concierge, occupational- and physical- therapy, nursing care, AARP advocacy, social and community services, church ministries and support groups.[11] For your own wellbeing and edification, join a support group of peers.[12]

In the midst of chaos, relationships no doubt will suffer. Brace yourself for hot-button issues with siblings—e.g., illness, finances, inheritance, distance, persistent stress—and, to the best of your ability, work through them.[13] Identify and avoid rabbit trails by sorting out non-essential endeavors (even if compelling) from essential, urgent tasks that ensure your loved one’s safety (always the number one priority). Once that work is accomplished, and as the process unfolds, purpose to enable your loved one’s Bucket List and, as applicable, to mend broken relationships.[14]

Team members maintain balance by lowering their expectations and avoiding tendencies to over control and underappreciate. Don’t fool yourself: Perfectionism cannot be achieved. There is no shame in seeking help (paid help, if necessary). You cannot do it alone.[15] Moreover, not to take exceptionally good care of oneself puts the loved one at even greater risk. He or she needs you to be present, rested, and fit—physically, mentally, and emotionally.[16]

First Things First: Safety

You do your loved one a favor by anticipating and, then, addressing safety issues prior to some catastrophic event. Many professionals use what’s called the ABC Approach (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence). First, you identify the antecedent—e.g., a wobbly chair. Then, you consider what possible behavior the antecedent triggers—e.g., loss of balance, the consequence for which is a likely fall and injury. To mitigate this problem, you intervene by repairing and/or removing the chair preferably before an accident occurs.

Apply the ABC Approach as it relates to your loved one nutritionally, physically, spiritually, medically, emotionally, and environmentally. Also, apply this formula to his or her personal business, finances, estate, transportation, and housekeeping. Keep in mind that it’s easier to alter surroundings than it is to change behaviors; therefore, be proactive in installing handrails (by stairs, toilet, bathtub), increasing lighting with frosted bulbs to reduce glare, arranging furniture to ensure a clear path, removing clutter and throw rugs from floors, locking up poisons, medications, and sharp objects. Trade out flip-flop bedroom slippers, notorious for occasioning falls, with sturdy, moccasin-style alternatives or leather ballet shoes with grip.

Continuous Assessment and Information Gathering

By proactively and continuously assessing your loved one’s behaviors and surroundings, you are more likely to prevent the inevitable crisis that, ready or not, forces the hellish, seemingly endless process of alternative placement and long term care.[17]

The perceived threat of interference can trigger in your loved one agitation, confusion, and apparent overwhelm; but investigation need not be overly intrusive. Simply make it a point to notice. Perhaps your loved one becomes increasingly ill equipped to plan and shop for, prepare and consume a healthy diet. Eating patterns, at best, are sporadic; and meals are frequently skipped. Take notice—then, action.

Especially when offers of fresh food and/or a trip to the store are routinely declined, recognize that what your loved one consumes, when alone, is unknown. Take your clues from observing outdated, improperly stored food products and unattended spills. When I tossed outdated and spoiled food from an elderly friend’s refrigerator, she later raided the garbage and restocked her refrigerator with it! To the point: An elder’s ingrained frugality can prove dangerous.

Fire is a clear and present danger. In one situation, a loved one tried to cram loose wires into stereo speakers in order to get the television going. Thankfully, in that case, wires were not active. It is not uncommon for an elder to forget a pot is boiling on the stove. When my mother began to use her toaster oven inappropriately, we removed it, along with the microwave oven.

While upkeep of the elder’s residence need not pass the white-glove test, watch for spilled and/or uncovered household chemicals and cleaning agents, signs of pest infestation, and unsanitary conditions in bathrooms and kitchen. Check kitchen shelves, looking for old lipstick stains on glasses; food residue, chips and cracks on dishes.

When an exhaustive stash of dietary supplements (some without lids) is observed, it’s reasonable to assume the loved one consumes medications inconsistently and overdoses on supplements. For example, “memory improvement” pills may have 250% of the daily dose of needed vitamin D, but your loved one is taking up to three additional vitamin D supplements. Not good. Notice loose pills on counters and floors. If there seems to be no rhyme, nor reason for the quantity or selection of pills ingested, your loved one clearly requires intervention in sorting and administering pills—over-the-counter, as well as prescription.

Be mindful of clothes, towels, linens, and dishrags sorely in need of laundering. Look for signs of incontinence. Soiled garments require appropriate treatment to prevent spread of germs.

Often, the caregiver chauffeurs a loved one to appointments and events. If that loved one is still driving, allow him or her drive you instead. You may be surprised at his or her dramatically diminished skills and/or disorientation when behind the wheel. On the other hand, while the mechanics of driving may seem to be in tact, a loved one with onset of dementia is not safe heading out alone. It’s time to pull the keys.

Vulnerability to Scams

Perhaps you’ve addressed personal chaos in your loved one’s life by introducing systems of organization on his or her behalf. That’s great, but constant vigilance is required should he or she recreate the chaos or otherwise prove incapable of following and/or acting upon plain logic.True, there are times the aged function well independently, but when repetitions and forgetfulness increasingly present, and that loved one demonstrates diminished control over his/her life, you must intervene.

Be mindful that, at some point, you will be called upon to produce vital documents and valuables (i.e., expensive jewelry, coin/stamp collections, etc.), which an elder is prone to surrender, discard, hide, or misfile if not set apart for safekeeping. It’s wise, therefore, for a caregiver to find, separate, secure, and gain legal access before those eventualities.[18]

It’s thought that identity theft is the most frequent, costly, and pervasive crime in our country. Especially if your loved one is active on the computer, be mindful of scams perpetuated against him or her by cyber-criminals who target vulnerable seniors. To spot signs of identity theft, be current with knowledge of what’s in your loved one’s credit report.

Stealing mail ranks as the favored method of identity thieves. Securing your loved one’s mail, incoming and outgoing, is vital. Additionally, opt out of everything possible—namely, credit offers, junk mail, spam, telephone solicitations, lotteries and sweepstakes.[19]

Conclusion

Death is a natural part of the continuum of life.[20] As a Christian, I know no greater honor than having ushered a number of my loved ones into eternity.[21] Until I join them, I purpose to order my affairs proactively and thereby ease burdens on those charged with my own elder care. In that, I challenge fellow Boomers to do likewise. Our kids and/or friends will thank us for it!

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. ”Stand up in the presence of the elderly, and show respect for the aged. Fear your God. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:32). “Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of daysd” (Job 12:12). “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
2. “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another”(Romans 12:10).
3. www.identitytheft.info (Accessed 30 September 2016). Each year, some fifteen million U.S. residents have their identities used fraudulently.
4. “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). “Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother”(Deuteronomy 27:16).
5. Learn the vocabulary and the “in’s and out’s” of elder care and advocacy—i.e., Medicare, Medicaid, supplemental/ long term/ life insurances, proper authorization for financial and healthcare intervention, options for various levels of care, availability of community services, professional financial projection to determine when assets will be exhausted under practical and predictable case scenarios, staging living spaces for safety and ease of ambulation. Ask timely questions about hefty buy-ins (redeemable or not)? Qualification standards? Waiting lists? Will institutional care continue after assets are exhausted? To what extent can family members contribute financially? To what degree, if any, are family members held liable for their loved one’s debt, etc.? What about final arrangements? Has the loved one’s preferences been solicited and honored? Have phishing expeditions and scams compromised his or her identity and/or resources?
6. Debra Rae. “A Boomer’s Guide to Elder Advocacy and Timely Care.” TRUTHTalk Beyond the Sound Bite, 4 October 2016. [Link] http://tobtr.com/9438119 (Accessed in archives after 4 October 2016).
7. “Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. Talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers. Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her” (1 Timothy 5:1-3).
8. With the loved one’s financial resources in view, establish a general, long-term vision for addressing each progressive level of care:
1. Independent in the family home
1. Independent in the family home with paid assistance
2. Independent in a retirement community (with optional services)
3. Independent in a retirement community supplemented with paid, in-home assistance
4. Assisted living in the primary caregiver’s home
5. Assisted living in a skilled care facility
6. Nursing Care; Hospice
9. “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
10. “He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression” (Job 36:15).
11. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother” (Ephesians 6:1-3). “Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23:22). “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).
12. “Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22).
13. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). “Be at peace among yourselves” (1 Thessalonians 5:13).
14. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:26).
15. “Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future” (Proverbs 19:20).
16. “Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed. ‘You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself. Now listen to me, and let me give you a word of advice, and may God be with you. You should continue to be the people’s representative before God, bringing their disputes to him” (Exodus 18:17-19).
17. It’s estimated that the nursing home population will increase some forty percent over the next decade.
18. Examples of information a primary caregiver at some point will likely be called upon to present:

Personal Information

a. Full name (maiden name, too) and birthdate
b. Military service—A veteran or spouse of a veteran?
c. Birth/death certificates

Medical Information

a. List of all doctors, dentists, pharmacists, their contact information and scheduled appointments
b. Chronic illnesses and allergies
c. Key medical history (diabetes, heart issues, bone density, surgeries)
d. Family medical history
e. Prescriptions, OTC treatments and supplements
f. Inoculation records

Insurance Contact Information (Life, Health, Medicare/Medicaid, Renters, Home Owners, Car)

Financial Information

a. Banking institution and bankers with contact info
b. Accountant, CPA contact info
c. Safety deposit (lock box, safe)
d. Debit/credit cards
e. Auto payments
f. Income: Annuities, Social Security, Pensions, Investment, etc.
g. Savings/ Investments
h. Debt (Payments, automatic or manual pay)
i. Home Value assessments
j. Collections/ Valuables
k. Tax papers/history
l. Professional financial projection to determine when assets will be exhausted under practical and predictable care scenarios

Updated Legal Information

a. Attorney contact info (Prepaid and/or Identity Theft services-?)
b. Copies of Will, trusts
c. Health Care Directive; Living Will
d. Power of Attorney
e. Marriage/divorce papers
f. Adoption papers
g. Naturalization papers
h. Deeds
i. Titles
j. Current leases

Licenses and Certificates

a. Passport
b. Driver’s License
19. www.annualcreditreport.com (free). Accessed 30 September 2016.
20. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
21. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).

For many, the Statue of Liberty symbolizes what America stands for: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Embracing the underdog characterizes America at her best. I’m reminded of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. A priest and then a Levite evaded acts of kindness thereafter rendered selflessly by a common Samaritan.[1] I’m also reminded of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy to “exercise intelligent forethought of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”[2]

Lest the proverbial “golden door” open up to anarchy, lawlessness must never be tolerated.[3] Take, for example, Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program. In a nutshell, LEAD arguably enables nonviolent drug offenders by offering them a lenient option other than incarceration. While touting statistically significant impact on reducing likelihood of new arrests (University of WA, 2015), LEAD likewise contributes to the flood of “tired, poor, homeless and wretched refuse” now roaming Seattle’s drug-friendly streets and overtaking the city’s public parks.[4]

Add to indigents an escalating swarm of unabated criminal aliens,[5] and threat to public comfort, health, and safety swells to the level of a national security concern. Today, tens of thousands of criminal aliens account for in excess of one-fourth of prisoners in Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, thereby draining the federal budget an estimated $1.5 to $1.6 billion per year. Countless additional non-citizen criminals live free and undetected. Some milk the welfare system; others plot to inflict unspeakable harm on their host country.

Corrective measures include greater federal and local government cooperation to identify criminal elements. Through a centralized identity verification system, we must deny jobs to illegal intruders and ensure that criminal conviction leads to deportation with permanent exclusion from the country.[6] Useful in that regard, the expansion of the Secure Communities program is no substitute for the 287(g) program that trains and deputizes local law enforcement personnel in immigration law enforcement.[7]

Limitless Inclusion is “Christian” [8]

Some argue that Jesus moved toward, not away from, potential violence. The Jesus Way, we’re told, requires our moving toward “the other.” Only if we cross borders that divide can we know and love our enemy.[9] But consider this: When Jews sought to stone Him for blasphemy, Jesus withdrew, concealed Himself, and miraculously passed unhurt through the midst of the angry mob.[10] When His enemies sought to seize Him again, Jesus “withdrew from their power” and “escaped from their hand.”[11] The apostle Paul did likewise. In boarding a ship for Syria, Paul learned that Jews were plotting to kill him. Instead of running toward potential violence, Paul wisely charted an alternate route via Macedonia.[12]

Others argue that servitude rendered to “the least of these, my brethren,” is credited as servitude to Christ. Keep in mind the Greek word for “brethren,” adelphos, references a member of the same religious community. “Given to hospitality,” Christians are compelled to “distribute to the necessity of fellow saints” (i.e., believers).[13] Ensuring that a houseguest feels comfortably at home does not presuppose open access to the host’s bank accounts or his marriage bed.[14]

Biblically, extending to an adelphos all that hospitality entails (food, drink, shelter) is ministering to Christ. Aiding and abetting a criminal is not.[15] Such wayward thinking is anathema—that is to say, it’s ill-fated. Contrary to fashionable ecumenical trends, partnering righteousness with lawlessness is a snare that, in the end, diminishes liberty for all.

Freedom allows for prosperity and success achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers, thereby affording workers and their families upward social mobility in the land of the free and the home of the brave.[16] In pursuit of the American Dream boasting democracy, individual rights, liberty, opportunity, and equality, Americans must never forget the key foundation of liberty—namely, rule of law.[17]

Contentious Controversy

Immigration reform ranks among the most contentious political issues of our day. Demand to limit, or temporarily suspend, immigration is met with ire. We’re told it’s racist, un-American, and unconstitutional to deny liberal access through America’s “golden door”—especially when targeted groups represent specific ethnicities, nationalities, and even religions.

With an open mind and heart toward “tempest-tossed, huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” our charge is to champion America and Americans first.[18] Our forefathers gained legal entry onto this nation’s God-kissed shores. In turn, we welcome legal immigrants who assimilate and contribute their best to America.

• Asylum Trap [19]

To safeguard “liberty for all,” asylum applicants must be screened expeditiously and, when warranted, denied access. Purportedly for needed healthcare, revolutionary Imam Fethullah Gülen gained ready access to our country. Despite the fact that countless observers, including the FBI, label Gülen and his “peace movement” a “radical threat,” and despite alleged immigration fraud—not to mention FBI raids, possible scandal involving a national Internet program, bribes, and kickbacks—Gülen has since been awarded extended visa status.[20] Significantly, no deportations, nor arrests, have ensued among his cohorts. Moreover, some 155 Gülen charter schools in twenty-six states (and counting) cost American taxpayers about $150 million each year.

Critics rightly contend that H-1B visas were designed for companies to employ highly skilled, temporary foreign workers in biotechnology, chemistry, engineering, and other specialized fields.[21] In reality, no one applies for more H-1B visas than Fethullah Gülen, who’s bringing in large (and growing) numbers of Turkish teachers, K-12. The object, many fear, is to “force feed” American children educational programs that feature Islamic incentives, especially via summer studies abroad.

• Selective Immigration Ban

Unknown to many, selective immigration is law. A 1952 act allows for the President to suspend entry, or to impose restrictions, whenever entry of any class of aliens proves to be detrimental to the interests of the country. The act further requires applicants for immigration to be of “good moral character” and “attached to the principles of the Constitution.” This naturally excludes foreign criminals.[22]

Since the Qur’an forbids Muslims to swear allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, all suspected Muslim fundamentalists warrant, at the very least, a second look. Toward ensuring safety of law-abiding citizens, lawful American Muslims included, said qualifications speak to common sense practice, not hateful racism.[23]

No rightwing zealot, Baptist Jimmy Carter utilized the McCarran-Walter Act (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952) to keep out Iranians. Also in 1979, Carter required a check-in for all Iranian students in the country whereupon some 15,000 Iranians (seven thousand in violation of their visas) were forced to leave. While progressives applaud Carter’s foreign policy acumen, they disdain comparable conservative policy as “archaic protectionism.”

“America First!” [24]

Truth be told, fully half of new IT hires are foreign guest workers; and only half of America’s technology graduates are able to find a job in his or her field. Our mandate is to expose the giant myth that America suffers a crisis-level shortage of qualified tech workers. If an American citizen (no matter race, gender, ethnicity, religion) is equipped to do a job, that American, by law, should top the hiring list.

Unfortunately, hundreds of productive American workers who, for years, have served companies (mostly in the tech field, but also in accounting) are being fired en masse—this, in deference to foreigners typically earning some twenty-five percent less than nationals. Requiring workers to train their replacements, then enforcing gag orders that forfeit basic constitutional rights, inflicts insult onto injury. Even more, the practice is illegal.

Every year one million Green Card holders enter the country. By 2025 that number will reach ten million. Yearly, fifty thousand lucky, if not worthy, lottery winners are awarded “Diversity Visas”; but this is no game, people![25] Outsourcing and offshoring American jobs will result in the eventual downfall of America. It has already compromised your privacy, and mine, with our banking and medical data being placed in offshore databases.

Formula for Disaster [26]

Political correctness aside, there’s always room to rethink policies based on their likely and actual consequences.[27] Before it’s too late, a foreign workforce spurred by merging globalism with super capitalism can and must be stopped. How? First, all Americans need to educate themselves on implications of issuing hundreds of thousands of H-1B, J-1[28], and F-1[29] visas. Patriots must lobby against leniency toward the 11-30 million illegal aliens (and visa over-stayers), as well as for a reliable national entry-exit database enforced by horse sense vetting processes. The DOJ, division of civil rights, must prosecute companies that discriminate against American nationals—this, in violation of Title VII (Civil Rights Act of 1964)—and DOL must prosecute H-1B abusers.

Our action, or inaction, will define the nation inherited by our kids and grandkids, so let’s say we do them proud!

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37).
2. Big Stick diplomacy, or Big Stick policy, refers to President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt described it to mean “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”
3. 1 John 3:4 pairs lawlessness (breaking the law) with sin, and Psalm 1:5 specifically excludes sinners from the assembly of law abiding citizens.
4. Sarah Jarvis. “Drug Program for Low-Level Offenders.” The Seattle Times, 2016.
5. Non-citizens who commit crimes
6. A Congressional Research Service report (August 2012) found that, over a 33-month period (October 2008-July 2011), more than 159,000 illegal aliens (arrested by local authorities and identified by the federal government as deportable) were released back onto the streets. Subsequently, nearly one-sixth of them were arrested for criminal behaviors.
7. In 2009, ICE revised the 287(g) delegated authority program, strengthening public safety and ensuring consistency in immigration enforcement across the country by prioritizing the arrest and detention of criminal aliens.
8. https://sojo.net/articles/worshiping-idol-safety (Accessed 8 August 2016)
9. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:43ff.
10. Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple,” John 8:59
11. Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him; and He eluded their grasp,” John 10:39 (Weymouth New Testament and Webster’s Bible Translation).
12. “And there he spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews, as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia,” Acts 20:3 (NASB).
13. In Romans 12:13 (NASB), Paul enjoins contributing to the needs of the saints (i.e., “holy” or “called-out” ones), while practicing (or pursuing) hospitality. “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me,’” Matthew 25:40.
14. The “marriage bed” is undefiled—that is, to be honored by all (Hebrews 13:4). Christians pray for those who would “despitefully use” them. Should one take their cloaks, Christians offer their outer coats as well (Luke 6:28-29). To offer “the other cheek,” or one’s coat, does not suggest falling prey to evil actions and/or demands of others. Passages, as these, are metaphors intended to illustrate magnanimity. They are not literal commands.
15. “Do not be bound together (unequally yoked) with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness,” 2 Corinthians 6:14 (NASB).
16. “If a man will not work, he shall not eat,” 2 Thessalonians 3:10.
17. “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God …,” 1 Peter 2:13-17 (ESV).
18. In providing for material needs, not to focus first on one’s own household is to “deny the faith” and to behave “worse than an infidel,” 1 Timothy 5:8.
19. debra284.htm (Accessed 17 August 2016).
20. “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman; and they will not escape,” 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
21. Temporary foreign workers in specialty occupations include management and computer systems analysts, programmers, software developers, networks and computer systems administrators, accountants, auditors, and electronics engineers. [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016).
22. Authenticated at: [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016).
23. “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment,” John 7:24 (ESV).
24. http://tobtr.com/9175683 (Accessible 6 September 2016 and thereafter in the archives).
25, [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016).
26, [Link[ and [Link] (Accessed 17 August 2016). Note: Protect US Workers provides free review of severance agreements and free legal advice.
27, “Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests, and Costs,” Government Accountability Office, 24 March 2011. Martin, Jack and Erick A. Ruark, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers,” FAIR, July 2010. “Arrested illegals who were released charged with 16,226 subsequent crimes,” Daily Caller, 9 August 2012.
28, The J-1 Visa offers cultural and educational exchange opportunities in the United States through a variety of programs overseen by the U.S. State Department.
29, The F-1 visa is a type of non-immigrant, student visa allowing foreigners (who maintain a full course of study) to pursue academic studies and/or language training programs in the United States

Target: Innocent Children

Events surrounding the July 2016 coup in Turkey befuddle onlookers.[1] In its wake, thousands of political enemies to Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erodgen were arrested or purged, and public sector employees were prevented from exiting the country. Erodgen opportunistically declared a state of emergency, thereby facilitating heavy-handed authoritarian rule.[2]

Straightaway Erodgen fingered Fethullah Gülen[3] as the coup’s mastermind. At the time, Gülen’s followers held important positions within judicial, military, and political spheres.[4] Called the “Parallel State” by President Erodgen, the Gülen (Hiznet) Movement[5] has spurred controversy for years. Some even credit Gülen with “running Turkey” from the Poconos.

An Internet web cam preacher, this self-proclaimed “living prophet” is said by many to be a moderate-progressive advocate for tolerance and interfaith dialogue, yet Erodgen alleges Gülen orchestrated the coup from self-imposed exile within the guarded, gated compound of a small Pennsylvania town in the Poconos Mountains.

Fetullah Gülen: Recluse Humanitarian and Scapegoat, or Radical Revolutionary?
Ostensibly to fight “poverty, disunity, and ignorance” under leadership of their esteemed imam, several hundreds of followers live with Gülen at the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in the Poconos. While advocates laud Gülen as a charismatic cleric, scholar, and humanitarian, others label the imam and his five million devotees a “sect” or “cult.”

United by faith, Gülen and Erdogan were one-time allies—this, during the rise of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). After assuming power (2002), Erdogan protected Gülen’s opaque businesses, but no longer. Today the two luminaries purportedly disdain one another. Since 2013, when Erdogan closed Gülen’s tutoring centers, the Turkish government has scapegoated the movement for almost every tragedy, failure, and/or conflict in Turkey.

In the mean time, Foreign Policy magazine distinguished Gülen as the world’s Top Public Intellectual (2008); thereafter, he received the New York-based EastWest Institute’s Peace Award (2011). In 2013, Gülen made it onto the TIME 100 List of the most influential people in the world. He was awarded the Gandhi-KingIkeda Award for peace (2015), has held court with the Pope, is praised by Bill Clinton, heartily endorsed by the CIA, and unquestioned by state and local school boards.[6] What’s not to like?

Here’s the rub. Countless observers, including the FBI, allege that Gülen’s “peace movement” needs to be taken seriously as a “radical threat.” Among America’s top experts on Turkey and the Middle East former CIA agent Graham Fuller takes exception. With Fuller’s endorsement, Fethullah Gülen gained access to our country, purportedly for needed healthcare. When asked by Erodgen to return Gülen to Turkey, Fuller responded, “no,” and President Obama agreed. Despite controversy associated with his namesake movement, Gülen had been awarded extended visa status.

Revolution Hidden in Plain Sight

The FBI determined Fethullah Gülen to be a “radical Islamist.” The network is outlawed in Russia and Uzbekistan, and it’s under investigation in the Netherlands. Yet friends of Gülen in Obama’s White House, the CIA, and Clinton’s State Department prevented the FBI from indicting and deporting Gu¨len.

This Turkey-indicted, exiled imam is credited with establishing a lucrative network of charter schools—by definition, deregulated, unaccountable, privately managed public schools that are partially funded by American taxpayers. Incredibly, Texans eschew Common Core, but nonetheless welcome fifty-two of Gülen’s madrasas. Ohio welcomes seventeen.

Critics contend that H-1B visas were designed for companies to employ highly skilled, temporary foreign workers in biotechnology, chemistry, engineering, and other specialized fields. In reality, no one applies for more H-1B visas than Fethullah Gülen, who’s bringing in large (and growing) numbers of Turkish teachers, K-12. The object, many contend, is to “force feed” American children “radical Islamic” educational programs and incentives.

Despite alleged immigration fraud—not to mention FBI raids, possible scandal involving a national Internet program, bribes, and kickbacks—some 155 Gülen charter schools in twenty-five states (and counting) cost American taxpayers about $150 million each year; plus, no deportations, nor arrests, have ensued. Sadly, this anomaly is in tenor with Brennan’s CIA, which openly supports public school Islamic indoctrination, as fundamentally developed by the George Soros-supported Center for American Progress and by Fethullah Gülen himself.[7]

Follow the Money Beyond Education

Gülen aims to reach all power centers. In Turkey, Gülen’s reach extended to his own newspapers, television stations, and banks. Worldwide, Gülen runs thousands of secular educational institutions, hospitals, dialogue centers, and relief programs. Impressively, one thousand Gülen schools in 180 countries educate over sixty thousand students (with thirty thousand on waiting lists). In Turkey, Gülen called his network of private schools/ tutoring and dormitories “houses of light.” The movement is known for violence abroad, yet Gülen Charter Schools in the United States are effectively disguised by similarly nondescript names—e.g., Concept, Horizon Science Academy, Paragon, Sonoran, LISA Academy, and Magnolia.

Gülen believes it’s sinful not to seek ways to acquire wealth.[8] Problem is, the source of his immense wealth is unclear. Partially supported by moneyed foundations (i.e., Gates, Dell, Walmart), Gülen Charter Schools naturally invite corruption and crony capitalism. American taxpayers likewise support salaries of Turkish teachers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Disturbingly, their inflated incomes are skimmed twenty to forty percent. Kickbacks—i.e., mandated “tithes”—serve non-educational agendas abroad. Ostensibly, revolutionary interests have benefitted handsomely from the Gülen windfall.

Hijacking the Charter School Movement

Some contend that the charter school network is key to cherry picking underprivileged, and therefore easily molded, children for the express purpose of radicalization. So why would an exiled revolutionary imam be allowed to educate American school children at taxpayers’ expense? Why do overly compensated teachers from Turkey work without teaching licenses in public charter schools? And why, in some cases, are Turks imported into the States to teach (of all things) English?

One reason is that Newsweek voted two Harmony Schools among America’s Top Ten. American educators today tend to eliminate classroom competition in the name of egalitarianism. Deserving or not, all students get awards. In contrast, Gu¨len’s schools foster healthy competition for boys and girls alike. This policy appeals to ambitious parents who, to their credit, value healthy competition and measurable academic achievement.

Add to that Gülen’s emphasis on STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). Impressive Gülen initiated Science Fairs stair-step the profile of the Hiznet movement; however, it’s claimed, students merely showcase projects that adults craft.

Thirdly, practice of hands-on, guided discovery methodology inspires students, whose summer studies take them to the exotic shores of Turkey to experience Turkish nationalism and identity. Presently, a Congressional Investigation is underway on the ethics of public servants courted by the movement who enjoy similarly choice trips.

Empowered through Intimidation

Against recommendations of legal counsel, a specially convened internal committee, and district residents, the Islamic Cultural Association in Michigan benefitted from a quietly negotiated, no-bid, below-market sale of valuable Farmington Public Schools property. Why? Intimidation prompted the sale (Ann Arbor, MI, 10 August 2012).

Worthy of a Closer Look [9]

When even a hint of malfeasance, as demonstrated above, shadows the education of American school children, a closer look is warranted.[10] Risk-taking documentary filmmaker, award-winning producer/ director, and attorney Mark S. Hall apparently agrees. His recently released, feature-length documentary film, Killing Ed (2016), takes an in-depth, first-hand look at the Gülen Movement.[11] Too much is at stake to yawn in the face of anomalies associated with Fethullah Gülen and his furtive enterprises. Our kids deserve better.

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. Meira Svirsky and William Reed. “Did Erdogan Stage the Coup?” The Clarion Project: Challenging Extremism; Promoting Dialogue Wednesday, July 20, 2016. (Accessed 20 July 2016)
2. According to a May poll of the Gezici Research Company, close to 1 in 5 Turks support the Islamic State, and over 23 percent are sympathizers. Furthermore, 60 percent of Turkey’s Syrian asylum seekers, fleeing Syrian head of state Bashar al-Assad, view ISIS as a sort of savior.
3. Related:
* Fethullah Gülen comments on rumors about the coup attempt in Turkey
* Mr. Gülen calls for an international investigation of coup attempt in Turkey
* Fethullah Gülen: No return from democracy (Remarks in 1994 & 2016)
* Fethullah Gulen issued the following statement on recent developments in Turkey
* Who is Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed for coup attempt in Turkey?
* Fethullah Gülen: Turkey coup may have been ‘staged’ by Erdogan regime
* Turkey Coup Attempt: Who is Fethullah Gülen, The Cleric Being Accused Of Orchestrating The Turmoil?
* Dialogue Platform’s Statement on Developments in Turkey
* Turkey Coup: Who Is Fethullah Gulen and Is He To Blame?
4. When the Turkish president demanded extradition of Gülen, President Erdogan was accused of using the failed coup attempt to launch a far-reaching purge of his opponent, whom Secretary of State John Kerry characterized as a “peaceful” Muslim. (Turkish Minute, Tuesday, 19 July 2016).
5. In research paper entitled Fethullah Gülen and His Liberal Turkish Islam Movement (2000) (MERIA Journal. V4, No:4), Aras and Caha conclude that, Gülen’s ideas are primarily drawn from Islamic sources to inspire a powerful civic/social movement, called Hizmet (popularly known as the Gülen movement). A Turkish word, Hizmet is derived from the Arabic-Persian word, Kihdmat, meaning “service.”
6. http://hizmetmovement.blogspot.com (Accessed 20 July 2016)
7. https://www.americanprogress.org (Accessed 20 July 2016)
8. Turkey Pulse
9. Diane Kepus. “Danger: Gülen Charter Schools and the Fethullah Gülen Movement,” Parts 1 & 2, NewsWithViews, May 21 & June 4, 2016.
10. Debra Rae. “Talking Turkey: Gülen Charter Schools in America,” TRUTHTalk Beyond the Sound Bite with Shahram Hadian, 2 August 2016. http://tobtr.com/8949099 [Access 2 August 2016, 3 PM (PT)/ 6PM (ET) & thereafter in the Archives]
11. http://killinged.com (Accessed 20 July 2016). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d8piSWX3kg (Accessed 20 July 2016). Further information on the Gülen Movement and its Schools:
Fethullah Gülen Historical Timeline by Prof. Joshua Hendrick
Fetullah Gülen Movement (AFPC World Almanac of Islamism)
Gülen Charter Schools Website (Anti-Gülen)
Fethullah Gülen’s Official Website
Harmony Public Schools (Texas)
Concept Schools (Ohio)
Magnolia Schools (California)

Who Pays the Piper? Everyone

A biblical imperative,[1] the exercise of religious conscience is likewise a constitutionally protected, legal right. The second clause of the First Amendment guarantees free exercise of deeply held religious convictions.[2] Be sure principled religionists who exercise right of conscience are driven, not by superficial “feelings,” subject to changing winds. Nor is religious conscience to be confused with feeling guilt for indulging a second scoop of ice cream, or skipping a workout at the gym.[3] Conscience speaks to an internal witness to what God commands and forbids, or to what is legitimately deduced from explicit biblical principle.[4] This, our Founders protected.[5]

Since 1997 the First Amendment Center has conducted an annual national survey of American attitudes toward the First Amendment.[6] Sadly, nearly one-third of those surveyed in 2014 could not name even one of five rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.[7] While right to conscience matters little to the uninformed, principled pharmacists and pharmacy owners in Washington State treasure this right[8] not only for themselves, but also for all lawful Americans. Mindful that human life begins at the moment of fertilization, and that abortifacients operate by destroying a fertilized egg, or embryo, these professionals cannot in good conscience dispense Plan B or Ella.[9] Nor will they.

Arbitrary Stocking Rules

Rationally, pharmacies are not expected to stock every FDA-approved drug. In the industry, a repeat customer’s prescription triggers the “stocking rule requirement,” but the rule has no teeth and is never enforced. Moreover, the state establishes no stocking standards for low-demand drugs, nor are pharmacies required to stock diabetics’ syringes, Schedules 2 and 5 nonprescription meds, or narcotics feared to invite armed robberies.

Clearly, the stocking rule allows ample wriggle room. For most, there’s no quantitative formula of patient demand signaling need to stock a drug, nor are there rules for how long the pharmacy must carry a given drug, once demand for it wanes. In fact, niche pharmacies systematically limit drugs they stock to specified healthcare categories such as pediatrics, cancer, or long-term care.

While Washington offers no definition for “good faith compliance,” Federal Appellate Judge Susan Graber (9th Circuit Court of Appeals) applies this overly permissive (and otherwise vague) rule sternly. In her world, pharmacies with religious objection must stock and dispense specific, time-sensitive abortifacients. For no particular reason, she exempts equally time-sensitive diabetic syringes.[10]

Arbitrary Referral Rules

A patient’s need for timely delivery is met effectively by alternative, facilitated referral. For most, referral to nearby pharmacies is but a minor inconvenience.[11] If pharmacists can refer patients elsewhere when a drug is unprofitable, or out of stock, why not allow Plan B referrals to nearby pharmacies? It can’t be emphasized enough that, with or without referrals, there’s no documented access problem for Plan B in our state, nor any drug for that matter.

One, and only one, category of drug is under fire. Special interest activists demand immediate product and service from a targeted pharmacist with religious convictions against a specific drug’s safe, ethical use. Strong-armed to forfeit right to conscience, career, or privately owned business, a conscience-sensitive pharmacist is bullied to forgo his First Amendment right in deference to someone else’s perceived, but nonexistent “right” to convenience.

What’s more, whenever special interest politics shut down Christian businessmen and women—e.g., photographers, florists, caterers, bakers, and pharmacists—timely access to specific goods and services is limited all the more (at least in the short term). Jobs and services within the community are needlessly lost; and, over time, principled gynecologists, obstetricians, certificated master teachers, pharmacists, and more are forced out of their professions for refusing to be bullied out of their religious beliefs.

First Amendment Rights Scrapped

Deputy National Litigation Director for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Luke Goodrich rightly argues, “No individual should be forced out of her profession solely because of her religious beliefs. For a pharmacist to maintain personally held, religiously motivated moral objections is fully within her constitutional rights; however, the United States Supreme Court recently declined to address a critical First Amendment rights case.[12]

Plaintiffs are Christian pharmacists and pharmacy owners being coerced to fill prescriptions to which they object on the basis of religious conscience. In this singular case, the standard practice of referral (unless within the same store) is deemed unacceptable. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson lauds the high court’s decision that, despite a pharmacist’s moral convictions, or better judgment, a patient cannot be refused.[13] So what’s to stop an activist from storming a church-affiliated senior care facility demanding Plan B? Must she be served—here and now, no excuses—even when said demand violates the pharmacist’s conscience while, at the same time, it sidesteps the clientele’s pharmacological needs? Think, people.

My Way or the Highway

Syndicated columnist Joel Mathis argues that pharmacists provide a highly regulated public service that cannot be denied.[14] Really? Everyday Washington pharmacies make choices about which of more than six thousand FDA-approved drugs they’ll stock (or decline from stocking, as the case may be). Should a patient violate pharmacy dress- and/or behavior- codes—e.g., no shirt or shoes—or should he be identified as a known shoplifter, he need not be served. To the contrary, crows Mathis, “If you don’t want to be a pharmacist who dispenses birth control, perhaps you shouldn’t be a pharmacist.” Huh?

Goose v Gander Inequities [15]

What’s good for the goose should be equally good for the gander, but secular pharmacists may do with impunity what religious pharmacists may not. Incredibly, pharmacists may refuse medications for all sorts of secular reasons—i.e., if a pharmacy doesn’t accept a patient’s insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare or if shelf space is limited and a medication has a short life. If it’s exceptionally expensive (and the patient can’t afford it)—or if stocking it requires additional, burdensome paperwork or unit dosages—no worries. When bulk purchase is necessary (beyond what the patient can consume), or if a drug requires monitoring or special preparation (e.g., compounding processes that require related equipment)—again, not to worry. No need to stock.

But an abortifacient is somehow different. The adequate, though not ideal compromise is for a pharmacist to “step away,” but not “in the way.” That policy no longer flies (in this one case only). A secular pharmacist may refer a client elsewhere for any number of reasons, but a pharmacist who objects on the basis of conscience may not.[16]

Conclusion

I am reminded of a prominent Protestant pastor, best remembered for this quotation as it reads in the United States Holocaust Museum:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

To their credit, our Founders honored equal-handedness. As the Free Exercise Clause protects my right to conscience as a Christian, the Establishment Clause protects secularists from forced compliance to my religious convictions. Respecting the Supreme Court’s recent laissez-faire decision,[17] Justice Samuel Alito warned, “If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern.”

My rights as a believer are at stake, true; but so are yours as a secularist. For whatever reason, self-appointed elitists may come snarling and yapping at your heels next.[18] Whenever special interest politics prevail over one’s constitutional right to “free exercise of religion,” then all core rights (including speech, press, assembling, petitioning) are “up for grabs.” Make no mistake. Everyone pays the piper.

Won’t you please join me in prayerfully speaking out for protection of our inalienable, God-given rights?

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

“I’m Secular and I Vote” Campaign

Any religion, by definition, sports its own distinctive vocabulary, sacred symbolism, grand metanarrative, exclusive truth exercised by faith, code of ethics/morality, creed, rituals, evangelism, and discipleship. As is true with any worldview, secularism by nature is a religion. Logically, to discard religion is to separate from the above, but secularism instead exhibits them all. Hence, “freedom from religion” is better understood as switching religion from one brand to another.

In Part 1, we established that judicial acknowledgement, a distinctive vocabulary, grand metanarrative, and vision for the ideal accompany secularism and religion. All inform voters and influence the course of a nation.

The late journalist Christopher Hitchens reasoned, “Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.”[1] Of course, one could counter, “Since it is obviously inconceivable that all secularists (or progressives) can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.” But I digress.

Belief Claiming Exclusive Truth

Naturalists reproach biblical apologists for fortifying dogma by inserting “the God of the gaps”; however, in a letter to Dr. Asa Gray, their hero Charles Darwin admitted, “Imagination must fill up very wide blanks.” Despite these blanks, naturalists embrace “settled science” as exclusive truth.
Having studied under the famous scholar, Gamaliel, the Apostle Paul had legitimate claim to knowledge of truth.

Because experience shows God’s unfailing strength as perfected in weakness, Paul deemed God’s grace to be sufficient and chose wisely to “boast” in his own weaknesses so that “the power of Christ might rest upon him.”[2] In Darwin’s world, to the contrary, the weakest links are expunged as “maladjusted morons and misfits.”[3] In shunning lesser human specimens, secular elitists worship at their own makeshift altar of exclusivity.

• Exclusive Truth: Settled Science

Mind you, Darwin hated his time at school and applied himself minimally. He left Edinburgh without a degree; and, at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he studied theology, he earned what was regarded as an “ordinary” degree. Darwin’s body of work was not wholly original, as one might expect. Instead, its borrowed tenets were lifted from a poem written by Charles’ grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin. The latter practiced an 18th-century pseudo-science (Galvanism) that involved running electrical currents through corpses of dead animals to bring them back to life.

Both wellborn-and-bred British elitists of their day, forward-thinking cousins Darwin and Galton identified with the dark side of the Enlightenment. Both rejected democratic elements, but some semblance of science suited their common cause.[4] Darwin’s legendary treatise, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, filled the bill nicely. In 1993, a number of intellectually dissatisfied scientists representing a variety of disciplines took a fresh look at Darwinism in light of ever exploding scientific knowledge. Unlike Darwin, well-studied, degreed, and highly decorated scientists found irrefutable evidence for Intelligent Design.

• Accepted by Faith

FFRF professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, Jerry Coyne, Ph.D., authored, Why Evolution is True. For Darwin’s theory to fly, faith in random genetic changes, at every turn, must provide advantage in an organism’s struggle to survive. This is not only highly improbable; it’s impossible. Even the evolutionary apologist British zoologist Julian Huxley ceded that a mutation signifies abnormality, not evolutionary advancement. Students of Darwinian thought are expected to overlook the fact that distinctive human attributes (i.e., language, posture/gait, moral/religious sensibilities, art/music appreciation) are not explicable by variations—i.e., multiple mutations or genetic shuffling. If it isn’t observable, repeatable, and measurable, and as long as scientists ask questions and apply the scientific method, science is not settled. My point? Evolutionary theory is just that: a theory.

Given the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Irreducible Complexity, and Law of Mutation, chance takes even more faith to believe than creation by an Intelligent Designer of an astonishingly ordered universe! Professor Hoyle compared the Darwinian process to the unlikelihood of a tornado’s sweeping through a junkyard and thereby producing a Boeing 747 from materials therein! Odds of this ever happening are astronomical.

Positive Impact on Society

Wrongly so, freethinkers credit persons unconstrained by religion with most social and moral progress throughout the history of Western civilization. Marketed to appeal to man’s best intentions (the common good, survival, advanced societies), evolutionary thought instead perpetuates a host of societal ills. Whether by abortion, infanticide, forced sterilization, euthanasia, or assisted suicide, “useless eaters” are targeted for extinction; and “the unfit” remain subject to human experimentalism and pharmacological abuse.[5]

Darwin’s theory validated his “good old boys” network of British elitists; and, arguably, it spawned socio-political atrocities of monumental proportion. His flawed line of secularist, elitist thinking is precisely what spawned slavery, segregation, racist immigration laws (to turn away post-war Jewish refugees), the infamous Tuskegee Project, and application of the “one-drop rule” to ensure racial purity/ hygiene. Progress? Positive impact on society? I think not.[6]

On the other hand, Dr. James Allan Francis eloquently explained, “Today Jesus is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned—put together—have not affected the life of mankind on earth as powerfully as that one solitary life.”[7]

Sacred Symbolism

FFRF lawyers defend distribution of tracts (called “non-tracts” in the secularist’s lexicon) and activity books on display tables in public schools. Purported advocates of separation between church and state, secularists in Orlando and Denver nonetheless display pamphlets that address sex in the Bible and problems with the Ten Commandments (you know, religion). Foundation co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor assures authorities that the activity book for middle- and high school- students teaches “kindness” and, if only by limiting the satanic theme to symbols in drawings, “the basic morals that we all agree on.”[8]

Occult symbolism gets a pass, but not prayer emojis. Recently, FFRF called on Apple CEO Tim Cook to remove all prayer emojis (symbols of cruel and unusual proselytizing) from iPhones and other devices. The Foundation’s Co-President Dan Barker warns, “Apple may not be afraid of the FBI, but they should be afraid of the millions of secular consumers who can’t stand these emojis.”[9]

Code of Ethics/Morality

Although Paul Kurtz insists that the Humanist Manifesto is committed to reason, science, and democracy, secular humanism is really secular de-humanism. After all, Kurtz’s worldview recognizes no mandate to celebrate, facilitate, or protect life. Instead, it advances an individual’s right to “die with dignity”—whether by euthanasia or suicide. Because secularists perceive humans as mere products of time and chance, it stands to reason that life is devoid of elevated meaning. Darwinian theory defers to the paramount principle that “ends justify means.”

Freethinking poet-historian Jennifer Michael Hecht reasons, “If there is no god — and there isn’t — then we [humans] made up morality. And I’m very impressed.” Claim to have created from nothing something that all can agree upon is indeed impressive—but only as a feat of fancy (a miracle, if you will). In reality, despite secular claims, basic morals that “we all agree on” don’t exist.

Creed (Dogma) and Catechism

Columnist for The Nation, Katha Pollitt regularly and energetically proclaims the atheist’s creed, “There is no God.” In accordance with this creed, secularists must transcend “inflexible moral and religious ideologies.” True to the secular catechism, believers celebrate, practice, and reward “plain speaking” on the shortcomings of religion. Accordingly, at the FFRF 39th annual convention in Pittsburgh (October 2016), theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss will be awarded the Emperor Has No Clothes Award.[10]

The Humanist Manifesto urges “people of good will” to work together toward “human ends,” but notable secularist, Oxford professor emeritus Richard Dawkins, characterizes the God of the Old Testament as “the most unpleasant character in all fiction.” While Dawkins claims for himself the right to freedom from offense, he denies Christians and Jews the same courtesy.

Conclusion

Both worldviews, secularism and religion, hold claim to exclusive truth accepted by faith, a creed (dogma), and sacred symbolism. Exercising an identified code of ethics and morality, each claims to impact society positively. To insist that secularism frees one from religion is incredulous; nonetheless, the Freedom From Religion Foundation accepts the one as truth, the other as fancy.

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. (Denton, Evolution, A Theory in Crisis, 24) and retrieved 29 January 2013.
2. 2 Corinthians 12:9—“And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
3. During the 1960 Presidential campaign, Margaret Sanger referred to Catholics as “black moles invading our buildings of democracy.” Sanger called for the segregation of “morons, misfits, and the maladjusted” and for the sterilization of races that she deemed to be genetically inferior (i.e., blacks).
4. Chuck Morse. The Monkey Trial: Evolutionary Politics in the Post-Modern Age. (Boston: City Metro Enterprises, 2013).
5. In 1961, Aldous Huxley, an important evolutionary thinker, lectured at the California Medical School in San Francisco where he stated: “And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. As part of a plan to help pilots, sailors, and infantry troops become capable of superhuman performance, many German soldiers were high on Pervitin (speed) when they went into battle. However, Nazis failed to monitor side effects. (Accessed 29 January 2013).
6. Angelo M. Codevilla. The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It (New York: Beaufort Books, 2010), 26-51.
7. http://www.changinglives.org.au/solitary-life.html (Accessed 9 April 2016)
8. Colleen Slevin, Associated Press. “Satanic Book, Bible Sex Tracts Provided at Colorado Schools” (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 2 April 2016). News A5.
9. FFRF calls on Apple to immediately remove prayer emojis from all iPhones. (Accessed 9 April 2016)
10. http://ffrf.org/outreach/convention (Accessed 9 April 2016)

“I’m Secular and I Vote” Campaign

“Freedom from religion” is better understood as switching religion from one brand to another. Secularism and religion sport their own distinctive vocabulary, sacred symbolism, grand metanarrative, exclusive truth exercised by faith, code of ethics/morality, creed, rituals, evangelism, and discipleship. Logically, to discard religion is to separate from all of the above, but secularism instead exhibits them.

Rituals (Superstition, De-baptism, Confirmation, Invocations and Prayer)
“Luck” smacks of superstition. Even so, Freedom from Religion Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor is named as one of the “lucky” eighteen percent of fellow members who grew up freethinking. As such, she was “spared baptism by water, fire or Sunday school.” Officially renouncing the primitive rite of baptism to which “the luckless” were so cruelly subjected, participants exchange creeds, dogmas, and alleged superstitions of one belief system with those of another. This they do by obtaining genuine De-Baptismal Certificates. (No joke!)

Extracting themselves from any claims of religious affiliation or membership based on baptismal records, secularists join and pay dues (i.e., tithes and offerings) to the fellowship of Freedom from Religion. Congregants aggressively challenge prayer spaces at the University of Iowa, for example; however, following the Supreme Court’s injudicious decision “blessing” sectarian prayer, the Foundation rewards freethinkers who ask for equal time to give secular invocations.[1]

• Celebratory Music Ministry

At the Reason Rally June 2016, celebration of secularism at the Lincoln Memorial will be paired with entertainment and parties that draw hand-clapping, arm raising, closed-eyes enthusiasts eager to sway to the beat of hip-hop artist Baba Brinkman, songwriter-artist Sophia Kameron, and Keith Lowell Jensen of Atheist Christmas fame. This is one Camp Meeting secularists don’t want to miss![2]

Discipleship

In accord with the Bible, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”[3] Even as Christians serve God, secularists are busy about the work of their master, mammon—this, by vigorously contesting what they view as unsavory practices in the public forum and bad legislation.[4]

• Youth Groups

As churches target youth, so do secularists. Last year Thomas Sheedy served as event organizer for the Long Island Atheists (i.e., youth ministry). Furthermore, this high school senior was granted a student activist award of $5,000 for founding the Secular Student Alliance at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, New York. Fifty-one students (i.e., converts) expressed interest, a teacher heeded the call to become their adviser (i.e., pastor-teacher), and goals were set (i.e., vision).

Giving Testimony; Evangelism with Promise of “A More Excellent Way” [5]

To the biblical phrase, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God,” secularists add, “But the wise person says it out loud.”[6] Through a television ad, for example, Ron Reagan describes himself as “an unabashed atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.” In a newspaper article about his nonbelief, honorary FFRF Board member Daniel C. Dennett wrote, “I’ve come to realize it’s time to sound the alarm.” Heeding the call, evangelists Richard Dawkins, Mike Newdow, and Steven Pinker promote non-theism as their “critical work.”

What better way to evangelize than by campaigning through FFRF’s “I’m Secular and I Vote” Campaign? In coordination with other major free thought associations, chapters across the nation spread the word via paid digital media, national TV ads, and efforts to mobilize students on college campuses.[7]

Tax Deductible Financial Giving

FFRF is a member of Atheist Alliance International, the Secular Coalition for America, and the Richard Dawkins Non-Believers Giving Aid. As is the case with churches and their ministries, all dues and donations on behalf of “nonbelief relief” are tax-deductible.

Persecution Assuaged by Promise of a Sweet By and By

In Sheedy’s view, “Christians will not find a speck of dust on our nation’s soil where they are persecuted as a group.” Many Christians (myself included) disagree.[8] Nonetheless, having abandoned his childhood indoctrination into Roman Catholicism, Sheedy sought legal aid for his struggles. In his view, every state in the country is under threat of scorn from whom he characterizes as “the losing majority.”

• Heaven/Hell

Secularists reference their own versions of heaven and hell. Indeed, FFRF conventions welcome “hell-bound atheists.” In musing about “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” freethinking lyricist Yip Harburg wishes upon a star (i.e., prays). Waking up in some ethereal place where clouds are far behind him, Yip’s troubles melt like lemon drops (i.e., heaven).[9]

Conclusion

For secularists to declare freedom from religion is folly because humanism (whether secular or cosmic) fully qualifies as a religion. As the saying goes, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” In America, folks are free to follow the dictates of conscience. When secularists demand a voice in the public arena, they are exercising their First Amendment right. The same right applies to Jews and Christians.

In the words of Coretta Scott King, “I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.”[10] Accordingly, Rosa Parks hoped to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free so others would be free as well.[11] For secularists to deny fellow religionists right to “free exercise” is to undercut and possibly even forfeit their own right. George Washington warned, “If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”[12] A word to the wise: Especially in an election year, even self-serving secularists do well to champion the First Amendment right for all Americans.

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. Secular group challenges prayer spaces at UI (Accessed 9 April 2016)
2. http://www.reasonrally.org/ (Accessed 9 April 2016)
3. Matthew 6:24—“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
4. “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.” Amendment 1 of the Constitution of the United States of America (15 December 1791)
5. 1 Corinthians 12:31—“ But covet earnestly the best gifts; and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.”
6. Psalm 14:1, 53:1—“The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt; they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good.” (Curiously, the Hebrew words rendered fool in the book of Psalms denote one who is morally deficient.)
7. ‘I’m Secular and I Vote’ nationwide campaign launched by Freedom From Religion Foundation to engage millions of non-religious voters (Accessed 9April 2016)
8. Persecution of Christians in America: It’s Not Just ‘Over There’ (Accessed 11 April 2016)
9. Judy Garland Lyrics (Accessed 9 April 2016)
10. Matching Quotes (Accessed 12 April 2016)
11. Matching Quotes (Accessed 12 April 2016)
12. Matching Quotes (Accessed 12 April 2016)

Part 1 -“I’m Secular and I Vote” Campaign

Free thought and pride attract atheists, agnostics, and skeptics to the largest secular association in North America—the non-profit, educational Freedom from Religion Foundation. FFRF Co-President Dan Barker opines, “Much of the movement away from religion in America is being driven by Millennials, many of whom will be voting for the first time this year.”[1] Hence, Parker adds, “We need secular voters to be vocal about their beliefs, or lack thereof, while rejecting efforts to push religious dogma on the nation.”

This, of course, is no small effort. The Foundation boasts 23,500 members, 20 chapters across America, not to mention secular student alliances. Nearly 8,000 secular voters are reaching out to educate the public about their beliefs. FFRF awards thousands of dollars in prizes for winning student essays; and they distribute “I’m Secular and I Vote” buttons, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and educational material.[2]

What Exactly is Religion? [3]

To be freed from something requires grasp of what is being discarded. So what exactly is the illusive concept of religion? Surprising to some, whether Judeo-Christian, Marxist-Leninist, secularist, or Islamic, all worldviews by nature are religious. Each defines an ultimate point of reference that dramatically influences every possible discipline from science to the arts, ethics to law, geo-politics to economics. All speak to an ideology, or movement, that offers some overarching approach to comprehend God (god), the world, and man’s relationship to both.

“Freedom from religion” is better understood as switching religion from one brand to another. Allow me to explain. Classical orthodoxy, Christian or Jewish, broadly typifies “religion,” as most perceive it, but so does secular humanism. By definition, religion sports its own distinctive vocabulary, sacred symbolism, grand metanarrative, exclusive truth exercised by faith, code of ethics/morality, creed, rituals, evangelism, and discipleship. Logically, to discard religion is to separate from the above; secularism instead exhibits all of them.

Judicial Acknowledgment

In The Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S. (1892), the Supreme Court ruled that our civilization and institutions are emphatically Christian.[4] In the early sixties, however, two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases made way for secular humanism by giving the proverbial boot to traditional faith (in the form of school prayer and Bible reading). It was then that secular humanism emerged as a non-theistic religion whose organized system of beliefs is upheld devotedly by some 7.3 million humanists, and counting.[5] Both Christianity and secularism have received judicial acknowledgement.

Distinctive Vocabulary

Keep in mind humanism may or may not center on a supernatural being. Cosmic- and secular- humanism both are organized systems of beliefs and rituals upheld or pursued with zeal and devotion. Their relativistic values exalt human worth based on self-determination through reason.

By censoring God-speak and pilfering biblical phraseology, secularists craft their own lexicon. Take the word, “conversion,” meaning “a turning”—whether literally or figuratively, ethically or religiously. In the Bible, conversion is associated with repentance and faith.[6] In the secular world, Harvard Professor Steven Pinker boldly testifies, “I never outgrew my conversion to atheist at thirteen.”[7]

Honorary FFRF Board member Julia Sweeny argues, “How dare the religious use the term ‘born again’?” Sweeney reserves the phrase for fellow freethinkers who, like her, have ostensibly thrown off the shackles of religion. The Greek word for “born again,”[8] used first by Jesus and plagiarized by Sweeny, means “to beget again into a new life.”[9] More specifically, “to be born from above.”

In challenging the phrase “under God,” born-again convert to secularism Mike Newdow complained to the U.S. Supreme Court, “I am an atheist. I don’t believe in God. And every school morning my child is asked to stand up, face that flag, put her hand over her heart, and say that her father is wrong.” Apparently, in Newdow’s world, affirmations other than his own are personally demeaning and, thus, universally offensive. This freethinking father knows best when it comes to a god that, in his view, doesn’t even exist.[10]

Grand Metanarrative (“Big Story”)

Defined by Huston Smith as “the clearest opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos can pour into human existence,” the religion of secularism merges symbolism with mythology and Jungian psychology espousing the “higher self.”[11] By self-identifying as “Mother Earth’s consciousness,” cosmic humanists blur the line between physics and metaphysics. Theirs is a pseudo-Christian patchwork of spirit-ism and avant-garde, “fourth-force” psychology.

For these, all life is energy; composite energy is god; and the promised expectation is “life beyond the grave” by becoming god. Most often by means of meditation, achieving an altered state of consciousness enables the Imperial Self to give way to collectivist spirituality. Cosmic humanists attain to cosmic- or group- consciousness by aligning and then fusing with the universal life force. The spiritual climb upward (evolution from embryo-god to “Christhood” through multiple reincarnations) is one grand story![12]

Secular humanists embrace perhaps an even bigger story by reasoning there once existed absolutely nothing. Nothing happened to that nothing until it magically exploded (for no known reason) and thereby created everything and everywhere. A bunch of the exploded everything unpredictably rearranged itself (again, for no known reason) into self-replicating bits, which (to make a long story short) turned into dinosaurs. This constitutes yet another tall tale, or “big story.”

In comparison, the grand metanarrative of Jews and Christian is this: “In the beginning, God.”[13]

Vision for a Utopian Ideal [14]

Simply put, the overarching vision for a Christian is humanity united with (and conformed into the likeness of) God’s Son, coupled with full restoration of the universe to its rightful order under God the Father.[15] In contrast, evolutionary theory at the epicenter of secularism self-characterizes as an expression of “merciless hate.”[16] By specifically excluding “useless eaters,”[17]“miserable, degraded savages,”[18] and those deemed “unfit and defective,”[19] the progressive utopian ideal sidesteps the Golden Rule[20] and Great Commission.[21]

In the words of the Trilateral Commission’s founding director Zbigniew Brzezinski, “Marxism represents a further vital and creative stage in the maturing of man’s universal vision.” American writer and editor Whittaker Chambers once fingered communism as the “second oldest religion.”[22] Understand that “non-sustainable non-producers” relegated to the low end of humanity’s totem pole include the elderly, stay-at-home moms, and those incapacitated physically or mentally. In the Marxist paradigm, all human rights are granted, controlled, and/or withdrawn by government consisting of elitists deemed more highly evolved and enlightened than the masses.

Conclusion

Toward developing our thesis (Freedom from religion is better understood as switching religion from one brand to another.), we’ve established that secularism and religion are accompanied by judicial acknowledgement, a distinctive vocabulary, grand metanarrative (“big story”), and vision for an ideal—all of which inform voters and influence the course of a nation.

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. http://ffrf.org/ (Accessed 3 April 2016)
2. ‘I’m Secular and I Vote’ nationwide campaign launched by Freedom From Religion Foundation to engage millions of non-religious voters. (Accessed 3 April 2016)
3. Scripture describes us as body, soul (i.e., mind/ feelings) and spirit (i.e., that which yearns for, and relates to, God). On the other hand, “religion” generally speaks to ritual—a means by which man seeks to please God and, thus, win over His favor by self-effort. In contrast, Christianity is a loving God’s reaching out to man. “We love Him because He first loved us,” the Bible says. Christ came to “seek and save” the lost, not to reward ritual. Many Christians (myself included) do not identify with being “religious” (representing man’s lame attempts at reaching God). We are, instead, “spiritual” in that we respond to His unconditional favor as we yearn for and relate to God “in spirit and in truth.” The Christian God initiates relationship through His son, Jesus. In a word, it’s all about Him, not human effort, although good works naturally follow faith (James 2:18).
4. 143 US 457-458, 465-471, 36L ed 226, United States Supreme Court, 29 February 1892
5. Walter R. Martin. The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., Publishers, 1977). 18-23.
6. Acts 3:19 & 26, 11:21, 20:21, 26:20
7. http://ffrf.org/about/ffrf-honorary-board (Accessed 3 April 2016)
8. http://biblehub.com/greek/313.htm (Accessed 3 April 2016)
9. The classic biblical passage references a conversation Jesus had with a prominent Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, whom Jesus instructed to become “born from above,” John 3:1-21.
10. http://ffrf.org/about/ffrf-honorary-board (Accessed 3 April 2016)
11. Huston Smith. The Religions of Man (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965).11-12.
12. The process of mystical (cosmic) evolution holds promise for humanity to awaken to esoteric knowledge. Presumably multiple reincarnations with upward mobility (called transmigration) provide opportunities needed for the modern mystic to ascend from embryo god to pantheistic oneness with divine essence.
13. Genesis 1:1
14. “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he,” Proverbs 29:18. “Vision” prophecy denotes the revelation of God’s will. Teaching a higher than mere human morality, prophets stood as witnesses to the power of truth. Its absence is marked by confusion, disorder, and rebellion. Uncontrolled, people fall into grievous excesses, which nothing but high principles can restrain (Pulpit Commentary).
15. Introduced in Genesis 1:26, the Plan of God destines believers to spiritual maturity, wholeness, and completion (Ep. 4:13) with Christ Himself being formed within yielded vessels (Ga. 4:9) until self-life gives way to the Christ-life; and supernatural works, as His, are accomplished in and through them (Jn. 14:12; Ga. 2:20). Although, in God’s Plan, believers partake of the Divine nature (2 Pe. 1:4), God’s awe-inspiring Deity and humankind’s frail humanity remain indisputably separate. Jesus Christ receives all the glory although He honors His Bride as one whose light is like unto a stone most precious (Re. 21:11). Indeed His Name will be in their foreheads, describing well the singularly focused thought life of His devoted, loving Bride (Re. 22: 4), “whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21).
16. In a 1905 speech, the great statesman, William Jennings Bryan claimed “the Darwinian Theory represents man reaching his present perfection by the operation of the law of hate, the merciless law by which the strong crowd out and kill off the weak.”
17. Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger presumed blacks, immigrants, and indigents to be “useless eaters,” “…human weeds,” and “reckless breeders,” “spawning … human beings who never should have been born,” Pivot of Civilization.
18. On 17 December 1832, as part of his world tour aboard H.M.S. Beagle, Charles Darwin arrived in Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America. Here he got his first view of the native inhabitants, whom he described as “miserable degraded savages,” a phrase he repeated often in his journal concerning these people. (Accessed 29 January 2013)
19. Dean Pernkopf (“National Socialism and Science”) used the phrase, “unfit and defective,” while addressing university faculty and students of Vienna, stronghold of the new Reich (from selected essays of Gerald Weissmann, 1998).
20. Luke 6:31—“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”
21. Mark 16:15—“And he said to them, ‘Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel (good news) to every creature.’”
22. Animal Farm Revisited with “Heavy 100” Radio Talk Host, Chuck Morse, on TRUTHTalk Beyond the Sound Bite with Debra Rae. (5 April 2016).

Be Careful What You Wish For

Industrial Age America’s unprecedented economic revolution is fast fading under a new revolution—that of global socialism.[1] Then again, it’s not so new. On 17 August 1945, an English writer Eric Arthur Blair, commonly known as George Orwell, published Animal Farm[2] whereupon he painted a utopian vision inspired by German economist Karl Marx.[3] An allegory about life in the Soviet Union, Orwell’s narration tells the story of disgruntled Manor Farm animals owned by the Jones and mobilized by a pig called Old Major, whose dream of a future world featured freedom and equality for all.

There’s no mistaking it. It’s a big idea: restructuring into a new order, or paradigm, whereby animals are drawn together in common cause as one animal family, one farm community with a common destiny founded on universal rights, justice, and a culture of peace.[4] Can someone shout, “Amen!”?

Broadly bantered about today, the word “socialism” remains ever elusive.[5] To quote Hillary Clinton, “Part of diplomacy is to open different definitions of self-interest.”[6] To that end, Old Major would agree, “It’s necessary to take things away for the common good.” Whereas increasing numbers of Americans outwardly embrace the ideology, others scoff at the notion that U.S. policies under progressive policies smack of raw socialism.

Alexis de Tocqueville explained that democracy and socialism have one word in common—equality. Whereas democracies seek equality in liberty, socialism seeks it in level-the-field restraint and servitude.[7] Arguably, Orwell’s farm allegory speaks of the latter every bit as directly to America’s political landscape today as it did to the Soviet Union of Orwell’s day.

Culture of Victimization

Visionary pig Old Major narrowed the root of all the animals’ problems—namely, greedy humans who alone bear blame for meager rations and paltry stalls. Whereas toiling animals are producers, the businessman, investor, administrator, and/or owner are but parasites that siphon off the system by oppressing workers. Major’s charge was to wage a moral and political war of sorts against policies of greed enacted, in today’s terms, by billionaires and corporate leaders on Wall Street.[8] Toward ensuring dignity in an egalitarian super-status for the mass proletariat, Major advanced Animalism, distinguished by unity in thought and reflected in the collective.

Culture of Entitlement

Without listening to a word of what Major was saying, the cat purred contentedly throughout the rousing speech. It was noticed that, when work was to be done, the cat couldn’t be found—not until mealtime, that is. In Orwell’s world, whether weak or strong, clever or simple, all farm animals were brothers. Despite voting both sides of an issue, the well-fed cat convinced fellows of his good intentions by purring affectionately for the milk and cream due him.[9]

To protect the simpleminded from being led astray by pesky facts, strong, clever community organizers arose among the farm animals. The hard work of leadership fell naturally upon the cleverest of animals, the pigs. Comrade Pig Napoleon (aka Protector of the Sheep Fold) rallied animals for a better future on the heels of change they could believe in. Toward fundamental change, hope, and transformation, animals united with one voice, together chanting, “Yes, we can! Yes, we can!”

Culture of Intimidation

The “have-nots” became cannon fodder in what, over time, appeared to be a damaging collectivist experiment, but no worries. A self-appointed cadre of experts determined what was real, right, and true; then, codified principles of self-rule into non-negotiable, science-by-consensus precepts. Had they found the right arguments, several comrades might have protested. But then, why bother? Unfashionable opinions were seldom given fair hearings.[10]

“Settled science” was settled, no questions asked,[11] and “animal lives matter.” Period.[12] Each comrade increasingly surrendered personal freedom of thought and speech for some inexplicit construct heralding the common good. Any vague sense of uneasiness was smoothed over by spontaneous, swelling chants—i.e., “Animal lives matter!” “Main Street, not Wall Street!” “Yes, we can!”

Culture of Nepotism [13]

Once human masters were overcome, leaders of the revolution changed so drastically that they amended foundational commandments to make life easier, not for all animals, but for the executive family of pigs whose elevated service justified protecting their self-interest. Were they not, after all, superior? Before very long the key commandment—namely, “all animals are equal”—was adjusted to, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”[14]

By redistributing farm resources,[15] pigs concentrated wealth and, therefore, power into their own hands. It became apparent that the farm had grown wealthier without making the animals other than pigs and dogs any richer. In providing milk and apples for themselves, pigs defended need for that privilege: Brainwork on behalf of comrades warranted enriched nutrition.

In joining the revolution, the farm animals’ expectation had been a society set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the weak. In the race to obliterate power-without-controls over the human-centric farming enterprise, animals failed to understand that their efforts were destined to become steppingstones for bureaucratic burdens and regulations, coupled with invasion of privacy and wealth confiscation. Bravely, Snowball (himself a pig) refused to compromise animal equality for the sake of self-interest and greed. When Snowball courageously stood for sacrificial principles of Animalism, Napoleon criminalized and, then, eliminated him—for the common good, of course.

Culture of Liberal Monism [16]

There was no part of the farm irrelevant to the collective anymore. Fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, thus discouraging comrades from speaking their minds. Some clever animals secretly mused that this was not what they had hoped and toiled for, but none harbored thoughts of rebellion or disobedience in that skilled thought police discerned even a hint of rebellion through a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice, or an occasional whispered word.[17]

Working-class horses, Boxer and Clover, suspected something funny was going on with the pigs, but naïve trust in Napoleon’s good intentions blinded them to ways they were being exploited. As sheep blindly followed, so did they. Each committed to accept the leadership of President Napoleon and to remain faithful, work hard, and carry out orders. Compliant comrades rationalized that they were far better off than they had been in the previous administration. “We shall overcome” became the state-approved message of their collective march.

All embraced the central slogan, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”[18] Despite hardship, animals dreamed of Sugar-candy Mountain, where in the sweet by-and-by they would rest forever from all labor. Until then, each existed solely to serve the collective good. While work was strictly voluntary, any animal absenting himself from it—except, purr-haps, the cat—would find his rations reduced by half.[19] Together, farm animals sang Beasts of England three times over–very tunefully, but slowly and mournfully.

Downside of Championing the Coming Political Revolution

At long last, while huddling together, amazed and terrified, the animals observed a world turned upside-down at the hands of their cleverest of comrades, now majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side-to-side.[20] With authentic equality traded in for an elitist ruling class, demanding of the masses harder labors and worse pay, the utopian dream had, for them, morphed into a nightmare. Just at that moment comrades might have uttered some word of protest, familiar chants commenced and escalated for five full minutes without stopping. By the time the sheep had quieted down, the chance to utter any protest had passed; and the Pig-in-Chief had marched commandingly into his big, white house.

Creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but it was impossible to say which was which. The oppressed and the oppressor were one and the same. Alas, to make a long story short, the masses turned against each other and inevitably forfeited the better future for which they once fought collectively.[21]

Moral of the Story

There emerges always an “Old Major” whose dreams and vision ultimately fashion an elitist leader to be obeyed, even feared. As Old Major, Bernie Sanders champions “A Coming Political Revolution”; and, in tandem, Hillary Napoleon Clinton barks, “Everyday Americans need a champion. I want to be that champion.”

Especially in an election year rife with stirring campaign slogans, we best remember that, when righteous leaders are in authority, the people rejoice; otherwise, they mourn.[22] In 1832, Noah Webster published his history of the United States in which he warned, if citizens neglect their duty by allowing unprincipled rulers, public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men and women; and the rights of citizens will be violated or disregarded. “If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness,” Webster added, it must be because its citizens have neglected the divine commands. Moreover, they’ve failed to apply the plumb line of truth.

The moral of our story (and Orwell’s) is simple: Be careful what you wish for.[23]

© 2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. When global super-capitalism is mated with communism, the result is a world socialist government called “commonism.” By transforming private intellectual assets and nationally controlled natural resources into the global commons, commonism effectively weds the bourgeoisie and the working proletariat—allegedly, for the greater good. The power elite that emerges works to synthesize capitalism and communism into a world socialist government, called democratic transnationalism.
2. George Orwell. Animal Farm (1945): (Accessed 25 February 2016)
3. Marx, Karl (1818-1883) – German philosopher, economist, and social theorist whose account of change through conflict is known as historical, or dialectical, materialism. His philosophical work owes much to the writings of Hegel, whose idealism Marx rejected. Das Capital is the fundamental text on class struggle, history, and the importance of economic factors in politics. With Friedrich Engels, Marx developed his philosophy demonstrating the material basis of all human activity. Together they formed the German League’s program, the Communist Manifesto.
4. “It’s a big idea: a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause … Only the United States has both the moral standing and the means to back it up,” President George H. W. Bush in his State of the Union Address, February 18, 1991.
5. A socialist believes that the way to achieve good things is to have government do it, but a government expected to provide everything one needs is able to take away everything he has. Concerned with “the common good”(utilitarianism), progressives advance an agenda for equal distribution of wealth and work. Proponents demand that everyone has the right to assured income and affordable housing. Note: Our Bill of Rights guarantees neither. Minus America’s signature middle class, two classes remain—namely, the oppressed and their oppressors. Every communist experiment that has ever been enacted, without exception, has caused unspeakable levels of the poverty, despite bogus claims to the contrary. Technically speaking, communism is the final phase and goal of socialism (i.e., big government). Under a progressive administration, this is the “real change” Americans can count on.
6. Hillary Clinton (Accessed 25 February 2016)
7. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_equality.html (Accessed 25 February 2016)
8. http://www.brainyquote.com/search_results.html (Accessed 25 February 2016)
9. Confiscation of the fruits of success to one who did nothing to earn the reward is by definition an act of greed, not to mention acts of thievery and piracy (Chuck Morse)
10. Touted as “tolerance,” political correctness is higher-order critical thinking often called holistic, systems, or integrated. The PC political agenda supersedes all other considerations. “At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question.” Indeed, “anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness” (George Orwell, Animal Farm).
11. The phrase, “settled science,” is an oxymoron. A scientist accepts that “correlation does not necessarily imply causation,” and he must control for all possible causes of his results. For real scientists, the debate is never over—about anything. To eliminate possible error in data or logic, scientists are open to peer review. Without exception, all scientific knowledge is open to challenge. To the contrary, the Wildlands Project provides an example of politically driven “science.” Vice Chairman Harvey Ruvin (ICLEI) insisted, “Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.”
12. While 72% of Americans are Caucasian, it’s deemed “racist” to suggest that “white lives matter” (even when agreeing that “black lives matter,” too). In truth, “all lives matter”—unless, it would seem, that declaration fails to support progressive political and/or social agendas.
13. Nepotism (favoritism) speaks to an oligarchy, government by a ruling elite. In contrast, God opposes those who are “partial in themselves” having become self-appointed “judges of evil thoughts.” With no God and no objective reality, communism looks to a powerful figurehead to serve the so-called greater good (Chuck Morse).
14. Egalitarianism is a specious buzzword for nepotism (or favoritism). It’s naked socialism demonstrated in affirmative action’s styling of reverse discrimination and its prevailing culture of entitlement. God pairs true equity with righteousness, viewing a just weight as “His delight” and a false balance as “abomination” (Proverbs 2:9:11:1). Because it’s not right to do wrongly that good may come, reverse discrimination cannot possibly be a godly solution for the offense of bigotry (Gal. 3:28; Ps. 34:14; Acts 10:28).
15. Those who own most of the top one percent of the wealth in the world are largely on the political left. Historically many of these same establishment conspirators were supporters of the two great political conspiracies of the 20th Century, those being Communism and Nazism; and that support included providing finance, media, propaganda, agitation, and other in-kind services (Chuck Morse).
16. Coined by Jean Bethke Elshtain of the University of Chicago, Liberal Monism is a philosophy denying reality that there are many separate beings in the universe. All ideas are connected together in the one highest ideal—i.e., that which is embodied in liberal/progressive thought, practical core values of which include federal deficit spending, high taxes, feminism (choice), gender and racial affirmative action/mandated quotas, secular education, gay liberation, judicial activism, and the like.
17. With Draconian fervor, Brown Coats (storm troopers of the SA), Black Coats (SS), and Blue Coats (police) dominated Nazi Germany. Theirs morphed into a culture of surveillance whereby squads of police hunted down all evidence of resistance. Due process fell by the wayside, as did basic freedoms of press and speech. Elections became farces; mail was intercepted, books burned. Never having been formally charged, many were arrested under protective custody.
Swelling military presence and mass shootings backed threats that “whoever lifts his hand against the State must die for it.” All were compelled to “self-coordinate” in line with National Socialism’s guiding slogan: “The public will transcends interests of the individual.” Within a violent culture of death, rabid national unity took on dark religious overtones, yet the German populace at large failed to push back, even on the Night of the Long Knives, otherwise known as Hitler’s Purge.
18. To commonists, “greedy” Americans are a cancer whose market-directed economies wreak chaos and instability. In their view, for the sake of “social justice,” producers must provide for non-producers—from each according to ability, to each according to his work and/or need. Commonism could possibly bring about a more productive society were there no greed, jealousy, or laziness; but (problem is) all three exist.
19. The phrase, mandatory volunteerism, is an oxymoron, which mirrors Planks 8 and 10 of the Communist Manifesto. It was reflected in Bill Clinton’s national “volunteer” program for America’s youth. Viewed as human resources, students are fitted to the work-force needs. Their “free” education privilege compels them to “volunteer” their services. As life-long learners, participating in cradle-to-grave indoctrination, and also as role models for youth, adults likewise are compelled to serve, often in the environmental arena.
20. Isaiah 5:20—“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
21. Considered an ancient utopia (literally, “no place”), Atlantis was an ancient city (or island) said to contain elements of democracy. In reality, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Ps. 127:1).
22. Proverb 29:2-4
23. In 1921, leading American socialist Norman Thomas gave voice to this scheme: “Under the name of liberalism,” he explained, the American people will “adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened.” Punishing the middle class, expanding racial justice to favor minorities, trumping the U.S. Constitution with international “soft law,” and demanding justice for the planet (ostensibly worthy of human apology and even worship) all hasten Norman Thomas’ premonition.

The 18th century statesman Edmund Burke wisely reminded us, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

Primordial Awakening to Universal Consciousness

Despite escalating wars, and rumors thereof, ours is an increasingly united, albeit complex world. More than ever, all reference to the future demands global perspective—economically, geo-politically, and religiously.[1] Internationalists hold promise of presumed perks—e.g., harmony and security—and, to those ends, incite primordial awakening to universal consciousness.[2] By ballyhooing the collective common good, academics join politicians and religionists alike in championing practical politics. For example, come June, Director of the Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly Andreas Bummel[3] will join presenters from Yale and Johns Hopkins for a two-day event in Brisbane. There, within the context of planetary integration (as if straight from the Baha’i playbook)[4] academics will explore challenges relating to world democracy, justice, and security in view of regional crises.[5]

Global Oneness Day, October 24 (Kah, Hope for the World Update, 7)

While the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes seventy-eight feet as the largest wave ever surfed,[6] it pales in comparison to today’s tidal wave of one-world interfaithism. Those riding the wave’s crest—from virtually all of the world’s major religious groups[7] —are expected to increase in number, hence influence, by 2050.[8] Enthusiasts apprehend their sacred selves[9] and, along with fellow demi-gods, advocate for official sanction of a Global Oneness Day.[10] Come October, “enlightened” participants will engage in Drumming Circles, Sunday Oneness Services, and a major telesummit featuring New Spirituality gurus Neale Donald Walsch,[11] Barbara Marx Hubbard,[12] Ken Wilbur,[13] Jean Houston,[14] and Ervin Laszlo.[15]

In persistent effort to unite our world, the United Nations has instituted an annual International Day of Peace and Vigil, supported the Buddhist Yun Lin Temple, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Aetherius Society,[16] Church of Scientology,[17] and In the Light.[18] Celebrations and concerts, rituals, ceremonies, meditations, and prayer meetings all herald world harmony.

Additionally, the first continental North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) Connect Conference will draw trend-setting interfaith groups as United Religions Initiative,[19] the Parliament of the World’s Religions,[20] and the New York City-based Temple of Understanding.[21] Problem is, deceptive, one-world cries for “peace and safety” are destined instead for sudden destruction.[22]

The Sacred Self: PantheaCon, Paganicon, Festival of Faiths, International Day of Yoga (Kah, Hope for the World Update, 4-6)

Self-god purportedly paves the way for global co-existence. Toward this end, February 2016 will mark the twenty-second year for PantheaCon, serving the pagan community in the Bay Area of California with workshops on goddess spirituality, ceremonial magic, shamanism, and (you guessed it) green living. In March, Minneapolis, MN will host the annual convention, Paganicon, a nationally recognized event, drawing pagans (including Druids and Wiccans) to their sacred fires and rituals. Participating at the Kentucky-based Festival of Faiths, otherwise known as “the Sundance of the Sacred,” will be a potpourri of Hindu teachers, Islamic scholars, prominent mystics, and even an ambassador under six US presidents, Thomas Graham, Jr.

Dubbed a petri dish for postmodernism,[23] attendees of the Burning Man festival postulate “what the world could be” under pagan influence.[24] A standard-bearer of transformation and counterculture events, this clothing-optional event in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada is certain to inspire self-discovery, inclusiveness, and visions of global utopia.[25] Never mind the fate of pagan societies historically relegated to ignominy. Pagan pride is alive, well, and slated for global celebration with over one hundred public events to be held mostly in the US,[26] Canada, and Brazil, but increasingly in Chile, England, and Italy.

Interfaith Dialogue (Kah, Hope for the World Update, 4)

In February, the UN World Interfaith Harmony Week will coincide with a Toronto film festival exalting the Paradigm of the Sacred Bee. By gathering nectar and pollen from spiritual gardens of Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, Master Peter Deunov,[27] Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov,[28] and other spiritual traditions, the “sacred bee” ostensibly ensures human survival by combining science, art, and spirituality into a collective, sacred attitude.[29]

Arguably, attitude and dialogue matter but, in the real world, they cannot possibly bridge the chasm between diametrically opposed, counterintuitive worldviews.[30] True, Tibetan Buddhism is among many pagan religions broadly accepted today, even in the West, but the wellborn son of a feudal lord who summoned fortune tellers at Buddha’s birth doesn’t hold a candle to the son of God. Despite Buddha’s title, Tahagata, or “truth-winner,” Jesus is Truth personified.[31] Whereas Buddha’s religion was devoid of the supernatural, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus to heal, deliver, and restore.[32] While Jesus assumed the intrinsic character of a slave, Buddha felt elevated above peers;[33] and unlike Buddha, who abandoned his wife and son at his Great Going Forth, Jesus never broke sacred vows.[34]

Better to cast down imaginations that challenge the knowledge of God.[35] Forging fellowship of light with darkness is folly.[36] Case in point: Chrislam—that is, “ecumenical reconciliation” between Christianity and Islam. Truth be told, correct practice—i.e., orthopraxy—depends on orthodoxy, not congeniality, as Chrislam would have us to believe. Keep in mind the Qur’an explicitly subjugates People of the Book (Jews and Christians) as second-class citizens, subject to burdensome fees and Sharia Law. Believers are allowed to live, yes, but only under Islamic terms.

Moroccan scholar Fatema Mernissi fingers the centrality of fear within Islam, but the Bible equates God with love that casts out fear.[37] In the words of Caesar Farah, “Allah may vary his ordinances at pleasure, prescribing one set of laws for the Jews, another for the Christians, and still another for Muslims.” In contrast, with the God of the Bible, there is no partiality, no variableness—not even a shadow of turning![38]

According to Dr. Moorthy Muthuswamy, “About sixty-one percent of the contents of the Qur’an … speak ill of the unbelievers or call for their violent conquest; at best only 2.6 percent of the verses … show goodwill toward humanity.” To “gently unite” with Islamic zealots is inconceivable; nevertheless, the Doha Interfaith Conference intends to promote the same with interfaith dialogue aimed at resolving world conflicts by restoring peace and harmony.[39]

ISIS has yet to get the memo, but no problem. By merging “science” with spirituality, attendees of the annual Science of Consciousness conference commission assistance of quantum and neuroscience, artificial life and virtual reality, transformational encounters, paranormal experiences, and—of course—yoga to realize the vision.[40] However, as offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like an image formed by the art and thought of man.[41]

Even so, today’s “inner voice of humanity” purportedly begs for “a pure moment of one” whereby, contrary to biblical mandate,[42] the clear boundary between physics and metaphysics is obliterated; and scientific study of the universe (cosmology) defers to its worship (cosmolatry).[43] The UN-endorsed International Day of Yoga may well create “elevated” consciousness, but “yoking with Brahman”[44] is an unlikely solution to climate change as proponents suggest. Truth be told, God Himself is sovereign over laws and principles that govern nature. Even the storms do His bidding.[45]

Conclusion

While the Bible advances no cosmic plan for global enlightenment, collaboration and empowerment apart from the Lord, Jesus Christ, what it does offer exceeds human imagination and desire. Ultimately, by His doing, the believer partakes of the divine nature—but only in measure and in strictest accordance with God’s plan. As recorded in John, Chapter 17, Jesus prayed to the Father that His followers would all be made “as one” together with the Father and Him (God incarnate).

To realize this destiny, the Christian disengages, not from terrestrial illusion, but rather from sin, defined biblically as “transgression of law.”[46] Jesus’ redemptive work bridged the sin gap and thereby provided believers access to Christlikeness.[47] In no way do they commandeer His godhood, but Christians share a common portion of the Father in much the same way that human offspring possess the nature of their biological parents. In fact and indeed, God’s children are fashioned over time so as to reflect “a measure of stature of the fullness of the Christ.”[48] Primordial awakening to the universal consciousness has nothing to do with it!

2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Click here for part —–> 1, 2,

Footnotes:

1. Carl Teichrib. Forcing Change, Volume 9, Issue 12, December 2015. Endnotes are drawn from this online publication.
2. Bible Prophecy Anticipates a new, one-world order in the bogus name of peace (Dan. 2, 4, 7; Re. 12, 13, 17) inclusive of:
• Its totalitarian nature, 2 Th. 2:4
• Its nature-worship component, Ro. 1:25; 1 Cor. 15:39
• Its “one mind” promoting what it claims to be the universal good, 2 Ti. 3:5; Re. 17:13-14
• Its fall from traditionalism (e.g., nuclear family to alternative lifestyles), Ro. 1:26
• Its heightened sense of human potential; humankind measuring all, 1 Jn.2:16 & 2 Ti. 3:2
• Its moral relativism; its calling light dark and dark light, 2 Pe. 2:1, 2, 15
• Its escalating ethnic issues, Mt. 24:7
• Its celebration of pride and ascent to the “higher self,” 2 Ti. 3:2; Ro. 7:24
• Its one-world religion which mirrors ancient mysteries, Re. 17:5
• Its animosity toward Christians, 2 Ti. 3:12
• Its broad expanse (peoples, nations, multitudes, tongues), Dan. 7:3; Re. 13:1: 17:5
• Its false gurus of “Christhood,” Mt. 24:5; 2 Ti. 3:13
• Its misplaced self-image, 2 Ti. 3:1-5
• Its misplaced loyalties, 2 Ti. 3:1-5
• Its misplaced godliness, 2 Ti. 3:1-5
• Its global brain trust, 2 Th. 2:10,12; Dan.11:39
3. Known as an international advocate of a global parliament and world federalism, Andreas Bummel is co-founder and director of the Committee for a Democratic United Nations, a non-partisan and non-governmental group located in Berlin. Andreas is a Council member of the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy in New York. Accessed 5 January 2016.
4. Hutter, Manfred (2005). “Baha’is.” In Jones, Lindsay. Encyclopedia of Religion 2. (Detroit, Michigan: Macmillan Reference). 737–740. Accessed 6 January 2016.
5. Gary H. Kah. “Global Calendar of Events 2016” (Noblesville, Indiana: Hope for the World Update. Winter 2016). 6: The Practical Politics of Global Integration in Brisbane, Australia, 13-14 June 2016.
6. “Surfer Rides World Record 78-Foot Wave.” BBC News. 12 May 2012. Accessed 29 January 2013.
7. With the exception of Buddhists.
8. 15 striking findings from 2015. Accessed 6 January 2016
9. No more than rehash of a very old lie, enticement to be like god is a timeless seduction. Described in the Bible as a beautiful, anointed cherub, Lucifer exalted himself above all others. He purposed to usurp humans as crown of God’s creation; even more, he wanted to become as god. With that very ambition, Lucifer seduced Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit of knowledge, reserved for God alone. Earth’s first lady, Eve, learned the hard way that “playing God” rendered no service to her relationship with God, her family, or humanity at large. As a result of self-god delusion, Lucifer fell as lightning from heaven; and both Adam and Eve were ousted from paradise. To this day, self-esteem has become the unremitting mantra of secularists and mystics alike. While secular humanists seek “a heightened sense of personal life,” New Age mystics journey inwardly in search of an alleged “spark of the divine.”
10. October 24 likewise commemorates UN Day. In 1971 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring United Nations Day an internationally observed public holiday.
11. Neale Donald Walsch is quoted as saying: “Our greatest invitation is to live in divinity, as divinity, and with divinity in every waking moment.”
12. Barbara Marx Hubbard of the World Future Society (which pinpoints who should be “sacrificed” to achieve the world’s desired population level for optimum sustainability) accepts that “we are Generation ONE, and our time is now.” The so-called “evolutionary woman” is awakened and connected through the heart by a passionate desire to express her unique creativity for the good Self and the whole human family. Ultimately, it is she who will guide humanity as this planet transitions toward a new world that ostensibly works for everyone.
13. Former Christian and now Buddhist mystic and Emergent thinker, Ken Wilbur identifies stages in one’s growth process. No stages can be skipped, as each step is an ingredient to a successor step to achieve one’s next highest Self until, at a certain point, Oneness emerges.
14. After Jean Houston married Robert Masters in 1965, the couple gained notoriety for their work in human potential. In 1982, Houston began teaching on “the ancient mystery schools.” Upon suggesting an imaginary meeting between Hillary Clinton and the deceased Eleanor Roosevelt, she became known as “Hillary’s Guru.”
15. Dr. Ervin Laszlow co-authored Oneness Declaration – Sixteen Hallmarks of the New Consciousness. In his view, the wisdom of the One Heart is awakened to the consciousness of Oneness to preserve our beautiful planet.
16. Firmly based in theosophy, and founded by George King in the mid-1950s, the Aetherius Society resulted from alleged contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences (“Cosmic Masters,” telepathically contacted and channeled). The Society combines UFO claims and yoga with diverse ideas from world religions.
17. Starting in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics (metaphysical relationship between mind and body), the Church of Scientology promotes a body of beliefs and related practices created by L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics. “Remember Venus?” Time Magazine. 1952-12-22. Accessed 20 July 2007.
18. In the Light is an interfaith organization on behalf of Hindu-Muslim relationships.
19. Founded by William E. Swing, the non-profit United Religions Initiative is a global grassroots interfaith network that engages people to cultivate peace and justice, to bridge religious and cultural differences, and to work together for the common good.
20. The 14th Session of the Parliament of the World’s Religions met December 27-29, 2015, in Kolkata, India, to endorse aims and objectives of the Provisional World Parliament. Over the course of twenty-five years, 145 Honorary Sponsors have come alongside acts, resolutions, and memorials that the Parliament adopts. Sponsors represented a plethora of faith traditions. Many serve (or have served) in key positions at the United Nations.
21. Founded in 1960 by Juliet Hollister and located in New York City, the Temple of Understanding is an interfaith organization that, in its early years, convened large “Spiritual Summits” in Calcutta and Geneva. The Temple brought together religious/ spiritual leaders of diverse traditions to engage in dialogue and thereby address problems of intolerance, injustice, and religious persecution. The TOU maintains a strong presence at the United Nations.
22. UN International Day of Peace and Vigil, September 21 (Kah, Hope for the World Update, 7) with 1 Thessalonians 5:3
23. Postmodernism acknowledges no “grand metanarrative”—that is, no big story. For this reason, truth is perceived as nothing more than a social or personal construction. It is more often than not self-serving. Without God and His Plan, reality dissolves into paltry bits and pieces (Isaiah 14:12-20; Ezekiel 28:11-19).
24. The Bible expressly forbids paganism as an abomination that excludes adherents from the Kingdom of God (Exodus 20:1-26; Deuteronomy 18:9-12; 2 Corinthians 6:9-11).
25. The Burning Man (August 25-September 1) is a massive, transformational festival and clothing-optional counterculture celebration of inclusiveness, radical self-reliance and expression, and community. Building a temporary utopian community in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada, tens of thousands engage in bohemian living, “self discovery,” sexual adventurism, pagan encounters. At the end of the week, a wooden effigy is ritually razed to the ground.
26. In 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court declared, “Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” Even so, people of other faiths historically have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship. (The Pluralism Project at Harvard University)
27. Also known by his spiritual name Beinsa Douno, Peter Deunov (1864-1944) was a Bulgarian philosopher and spiritual teacher, called “the Master” by followers. Touted as “the most published Bulgarian author to this day,” he developed a form of Esoteric Christianity. J. Gordon Melton; Martin Baumann (21 September 2010). Religions of the World, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices. 59.
28. A leading 20th-century teacher of Western Esotericism in Europe, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (1900-1986) was a Bulgarian philosopher, pedagogue, alchemist, mystic, magus, and astrologer. He was a disciple of the universal spiritual Master Beinsa Douno, founder of the Universal White Brotherhood practicing prayer, meditation, breathing exercises, yoga of nutrition, and paneurhythmy dance. Aïvanhov taught “perennial wisdom” expressed through ancient principles of initiatic science —i.e., in the higher world, all things are linked—consistent with one’s level of spiritual evolution. Cosmic laws govern the universe and humans—the macrocosm and microcosm, respectively—with exchanges constantly taking place between them. Esoteric Christians seek the “Kingdom of God on earth” within the sacred self.
29. The Sacred Bee Paradigm gently unites world religions by means of science (providing healthful nutrition and healing with bee products, called apitherapy), art (capturing the essence of world religions likened to pollen), and religion (ancient folklore surrounding Shamanic ways of the bee). www.sacredbeemovie.net. Accessed 4 January 2016.
30. Talk is cheap. That is to say, it’s easier for one to say he will do something than actually do it.
31. John 14:62
32. Luke 4:18
33. Philippians 2:7
34. John 14:6
35. 2 Corinthians 10:5
36. 2 Corinthians 6:14
37. 1 John 4:8,18
38. Acts 10:34; James 1:17
39. Doha Interfaith Conference, February 16-17 in Doha, Qatar (Kah, Hope for the World Update, 4)
40. The Science of Consciousness, April 25-30 in Tucson, Arizona (Kah, Hope for the World Update, 5)
41. Acts 17:29
42. 2 Corinthians 6:17; Isaiah 52:11
43. Romans 1:20ff
44. Sanskrit for “union,” yoga is the means for “yoking with Brahman” (the god-head in Hinduism). It facilitates mystical union with a personal deity through the practice of self-hypnosis to rise above the senses by abstract meditation.
45. Psalm 148:8
46. 1 John 3:4
47. 2 Peter 1:4
48. Ephesians 4:13 (Young’s Literal Translation)

Dubious Debt to Islam

Religious tolerance is rooted deeply in the American psyche. Historically, Constitutional freedom of religion allows free exercise of the Christian faith while, at the same time, giving place to differing persuasions.[1] In his 1791 autobiography, for example, Benjamin Franklin “did not disapprove” of a Pennsylvania meeting place designed to accommodate preachers of all religions. “Even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us,” Franklin opined, “he would find a pulpit at his service.”[2] The subjunctive mood of Franklin’s comment occurs in a counterfactual dependent clause, used to express a state of unreality—i.e., a possibility or action that has not actually occurred.[3] Clearly, Franklin perceived Islamic influence in America to be counterfactual and, therefore, unlikely.

If Muslims and their religious-political system of Islam were intrinsically involved in the founding, growth, and spectacular success of the United States, as some progressives contend, one would expect long term, high visibility to this day. However, even the Executive Director of Michigan’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Dawud Walid, admits how unusual it is that Hamtramck boasts a Muslim-majority city council, not to mention more mosques per capita than anywhere else in the country.[4]

By fashioning stories that plant Muslim Americans squarely in the center of our nation’s history and culture, the New Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History seeks to rectify indignities toward post-9/11 Muslim Americans who, we’re led to believe, are misunderstood, unfairly maligned, and marginalized. With this mindset, President Obama commits to “fighting negative stereotypes against Islam wherever they appear.”[5]

Negative Stereotypes Under Fire

By definition, a stereotype is a fixed, but overly simplified viewpoint applied broadly as if it were empirically authenticated when, in fact, it’s not. That “all Muslim Americans are terrorists” is a fallacious stereotype to be soundly rejected, as is the odious stereotype, “All Christians are hypocritical hatemongers.”

Keep this in mind: Religious dictates are not stereotypes. They’re doctrine. Whereas Christians are enjoined to turn the other cheek, and love their enemies,[6] Muslims are charged with fighting, seizing, beleaguering, smiting, and slaying nonbelievers. Endorsed Islamic practices include female genital mutilation, underage/ forced marriage, polygamy, domestic abuse, honor killing, extortion, torture, and lying to achieve one’s ends (called taqiyya). Muslim men freely scourge their disobedient wives and, for perceived misbehaviors, engage in honor killings. To quote the Qur’an, faithful devotees “instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers,” “smite them above their necks,” and “smite all their finger-tips off them.” Now we’re talking doctrine (not stereotype), Qur’an (not Bible).[7]

Freedom Under Fire

The philosophical importance of the American Revolution was liberty for all. As eloquently penned by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Heroes dare to die and leave their children free.”[8] Minutemen fought to the death for freedom, not for the death of freedom in some lame attempt to avoid negative stereotypes. It’s folly to subjugate “freedom for all” to combat “negative stereotypes for some.” Yet heralded in The Muslim Discovery of America as the first permanent Arab Muslim settler in New York, an Egyptian Muslim, named Norsereddine, allegedly perpetrated North America’s first Muslim “honor killing.” To play the PC card on his behalf is to deny a victim (in this case, Mohawk Indian Princess Lotowana) both life and liberty at the most fundamental level.

Reverse Nepotism

One would expect that, if a double standard were applied in “the land of the free,” it would favor the biblical principle of freedom.[9] Indeed, in 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court established that “our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.”[10] Notwithstanding, the Council on Islamic Education, based in California, guides publishers in how to represent Islam favorably, if not accurately, in public school textbooks. Tinsel-Town executives follow similar protocol, as do all segments of politically correct society; yet selective application of the so-called “separation” principle more often than not denies this very courtesy to American Christians.

Our Debt to Islam

Fact is, there’s no credible documentation for Muslims having arrived in the Americas five centuries ahead of Christopher Columbus. Still, Dr. Youssef Mroueh claims that Muslims preceded European explorers. To prove this, some assign bogus Arabic-Islamic roots to names of places with no known Muslim past. Allakaket in Alaska, for instance, is not derived from “Allah.” It is a Koyukuk Indian name, meaning “mouth of the Alatna River.”[11]

Treaties established with the Barbary Kingdoms called for paying tribute to Muslim pirates in exchange for not raiding U.S. cargo ships. What President Obama identifies as the first iftar dinner in the White House[12] was merely the venue for discussing Tunisia’s piracy against American merchant ships. Thomas Jefferson’s sharing a meal with the Muslim ambassador presumed no Islamic menu.

Legacy of Dishonor

In the 1930s, the Nation of Islam’s founding augmented the Muslim American population among African Americans; and it brought Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Louis Farrakhan to the public eye. However, their presumed-to-be “enormous influence on American life and politics” hardly qualifies as a legacy of honor. While portraying white people as “potential humans” who have yet to evolve, Farrakhan applauds Hitler as “a very great man.”[13] Claiming not to be anti-white, Malcolm X likewise insisted, “We don’t have time for the white man.”[14]

Conclusion

Truth that sets free deems all men and women to be equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.[15] Sadly, our nation fell short of the ideal with legal institution of human chattel. Cruelty toward slaves by some American plantation owners was no less egregious than treatment of Muslim traders who burned escaped slaves at the stake, impaled them on huge iron hooks, or had large wooden poles shoved up their rectums (Don Fredrick, July 2012).

Rather than ignore or reimage unsavory reality, it’s far better to face historical facts head on with a mind to combat evil.[16] To embrace America’s self-evident, founding truths is to be blessed so as to bless others in turn. By way of example, a foreigner to Judea, the Moabite widow named Ruth, famously professed loyalty to her mother-in-law by embracing Naomi’s people and God as her own. In willingly adopting the Hebrew culture and religion, Ruth eventually gained security for Naomi, as well as herself.[17]

In following Ruth’s example of assimilation, immigrants today share in the blessings of America’s Bible-birthed, God-kissed culture at its best. Our charge as Christian Americans is to humble ourselves, seek God in prayer, and turn from our wicked ways.[18] Then will we hear from heaven; God will forgive our sin, and He will heal our land.[19] That’s a promise but, even more, a command.

2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. Larry P. Arnn, President. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America (Hillsdale: Hillsdale College, July 2014). 17.
2. William J. Federer. America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations (St. Louis, Mo: AMERISEARCH, INC., 2000). 239-253.
3. Subjunctive Mood. Retrieved 22 January 2016
4. This U.S. city has become the first to elect a Muslim-majority city council. Retrieved 22 January 2016
5. Barack Obama Quotes. Retrieved 22 January 2016
6. Matthew 5:39 and Matthew 5:42
7. The Yusuf Ali translation of the Qur’an reads as follows:
• “Fighting is prescribed for you,” Sura 2:216.
• “Of the Unbelievers: seize them and slay them wherever you find them; and in any case take no friends or helpers from their ranks,” Sura 4:89.
• “Allah has granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit at home,” Sura 4:95.
• “For the unbelievers are open enemies to you,” Sura 4:101.
• “From those too, who call themselves Christians, we did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent to them: so we estranged them, and with enmity and hatred between one and the other, to the Day of Judgment. And soon will Allah show them what they have done,” Sura 5:14.
• “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he among you that turns to them for friendship is of them,” Sura 5:51.
• Of the Jews: “When in their insolence they transgressed all prohibitions, we said to them, ‘Be you apes, despised and rejected,’” Sura 7:16.
• “Many are the men we have made for Hell,” Sura 7:179.
• “I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. You smite them above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them,” Sura 8:12
• “Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war,” Sura 9:5. (Arab means “to lie in wait”)
• “Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks…,” Sura 47:4.
8. Concord Hymn, Retrieved 21 January 2016
9. 2 Corinthians 3:17
10. Federer, America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, 599-601.
11.Insisting that hundreds of place names in the United States and Canada derive from Arabic-Islamic roots, some researchers today argue that Muslims came from Islamic Spain, particularly the port of Delba (Pelos)—this, during the rule of Caliph Abdullah Ibn Mohammed (888-912). Any Arabic-Islamic origin claim to the Floridian name, Islamorada, is bogus. It means “purple Island,” as designated by the early Spanish explorers—not by Muslim pioneers. The same applies to the town of Allakaket, Alaska, which has no Muslim past.
12. Contrast Barack Obama’s Quotes About Islam With His Quotes About Christianity. Retrieved 25 January 2016
13. Search Results, Retrieved 25 January 2016
14. Search Results, Retrieved 25 January 2016
15. John 8:32
16. Proverbs 6:16-19
17. Ruth 1:16
18. “He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy,” Proverbs 28:13.
19. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Christian No More?

This February, America celebrates the 284th birthday of George Washington, venerated father of his country. On his birthday the Senate traditionally reads Washington’s Farewell Address, in which he urged Americans to avoid excessive political party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he cautioned against long-term alliances with other nations.[1]

Aware that “it is impossible to rightly rule the world without God and the Bible,” Washington further noted, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Accordingly, the General issued orders to be attentive to “the higher duties of religion.”[2] The dispositions, habits, and duties to which Washington adhered were decidedly and conspicuously Christian. Indeed Chief Justice John Marshall knew Washington as the “sincere believer in the Christian faith” and “truly devout man” that he was.

On behalf of the United States, especially for brethren who served in the field, Washington prayed for holy protection of the “Divine Author of our blessed religion through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”[3] His expressed desire was for the world to be filled with the knowledge of God and His son, Jesus Christ.[4] To this end, the General characterized the Continental army as “Christian soldiers defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country;”[5] and his field notebook contained a personal prayer book, expounding merits of the Lord Jesus.[6]

Ronald Reagan echoed Washington’s sentiments while warning, as if prophetically, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”[7]

Christian No More?

Over many decades, the vision of “a shining city upon a hill” has dimmed, so much so that President Obama has contravened several Supreme Court rulings[8] by announcing, “Whatever we once were we are no longer just a Christian nation.”[9] True, Constitutional freedom of religion gives place for free exercise of differing persuasions. However, by regaling “deep appreciation for the Islamic faith,” whose unspecified contributions “over the centuries” have allegedly “shaped our country,” the President seems to have round-filed America’s heavily documented heritage to the contrary. George Washington’s own writings, journals, letters, manuscripts (and those of his closest family and confidants) showcase the Christian cornerstone for what would become one of the most prosperous, free nations in the history of civilization.[10] Without affording even a nod to the Qur’anic moon god, Washington unapologetically credited this astounding feat to the God of the Bible.

Assimilation Mandate

Even if Muslims fought in the Revolution, as purported by progressive revisionists, Washington likely would have repeated to them counsel he offered Chiefs of the Delaware Indian tribe at the Middle Brook military encampment: “Congress will look upon [your youth] as their own children … You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.”[11] Guided by biblical principle,[12] Washington invited them to share the nation’s blessings by assimilation (biblical ethics and English language included). Keep in mind, to their credit, at least half of our presidents were proficient in speaking or writing a language other than English, yet the language of our Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the United States of America, and Bill of Rights was English—not Spanish; not Ebonics; not Arabic.[13]

Phantom Thread of Islamic Patriotism

Progressives nonetheless advance a fanciful notion that, from America’s founding, some phantom thread of Islam has been tightly interwoven within the fabric of her history. Since the colonial period (when some twenty thousand African Muslim slaves were transported), through the early 20th century influx of Muslim immigrants, to the present day, Islam purportedly played an integral role.

“Presence”? Maybe. “Integral”? I think not. Cultural jihad by no means accounts for America’s preeminence. Written by Mohamed Akram,[14] the Explanatory Memorandum (1991) characterizes America’s Islamic Movement as a settlement process. Likened to a “grand jihad,” this process expressly purposes to eliminate and destroy Western civilization from within. In imploring Americans to “revere and respect” the Muslim’s alternate “path to grace,” Obama overlooks cultural jihad, Islamic anti-Semitism, and Shari’ah Law, all of which defy American values.

Tellingly, there is no Arabic word for “democracy,” nor does the Qur’an even once ascribe “love” to Allah. Islamic “peace” trails submission, if not by choice, by force. The biblical mandate is not to overcome by force, but rather to “overcome evil with good.”[15] Jesus came “to seek and save the lost.”[16] In contrast, adherents of the Qur’an view the West, not as a culture to be embraced or even tolerated, but rather as an obstacle to be overcome.[17] An immutable and compulsory mono-cultural system, Shari’ah is the crucial fault line of Islam’s civil struggle. Under its dictates, peaceful coexistence at best is untenable.[18]

Even so, in publicly praising Islam for its “proud tradition of tolerance,” President Obama ignores the plight of Christians who, to this day, pay the ultimate price for professing their Christian faith in “tolerant” Islamist nations. Remember, some seventy percent of the world’s population lives in countries that restrict religious liberty; and most are Muslim-majority countries (plus China and North Korea).[19]

“Right” Not to be Offended

Throughout the Revolution, General Washington suffered lack of support from the colonies and congress, not to mention soldier desertions, mutinies, defeats, and military betrayals by Gates, Lee, Rush, Conway, and Arnold. Even after military victory, Washington faced political resistance, mudslinging, and betrayals, yet he labored eight years to forge a nation through a political experiment that had never before been attempted. Washington accepted that offenses come.[20] Though his integrity, republican principles, and military prowess were brought into question, Washington nonetheless persevered.[21]

Routinely misunderstood and portrayed as caricatures (if at all), post-9/11 Muslim-Americans portray themselves as unfairly maligned and marginalized. As other minority groups, these claim some unwritten “right” not to be offended. Even if said allegations ring true, skittishness is not without cause. From AD 33 until Y2K, Muslim terrorists murdered some nine million Christians; and since 1972, deadly Islamic terror on American soil has injured and/or killed civilians in New York, Maryland, Washington DC, Washington State, California, Illinois, Missouri, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Colorado, Georgia, Arkansas, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

Though one unfortunate Muslim-American revenge killing followed 9/11, roughly three thousand died at the hands of radical Muslims.[22] Truth be told, Jihadi terrorists pose a much greater threat to peace loving Muslims than wary Westerners do.

Based on exhaustive documentation, America first and foremost is one nation under God. Heralding the God of the Bible may well offend some. Still, in celebrating the legacy of founding father George Washington, we do well to remember Esau who lightly esteemed his birthright and, for a bowl of pottage, forfeited the double portion due him as Isaac’s firstborn son. Should we disparage our noble heritage in following Esau’s example, America will be a nation gone under, as Reagan warned.[23]

2016 Debra Rae – All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. The address was printed in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796. Washington’s final manuscript is at The New York Public Library. For more information, see the University of Virginia’s The Papers of George Washington collection.
2. William J. Federer. America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations (St. Louis, Mo: AMERISEARCH, INC., 2000).
3. Ibid, 647.
4. Ibid, 659.
5. Ibid, 639.
6. Ibid, 657-659.
7. A Nation Going Under. (Retrieved 24 January 2016)
8. In 1892 the U.S. Supreme Court established that “our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon the teachings of the Redeemer of Mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” See also: Vidal v. Girald’s Executors, 1844; Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892; United States v. Macintosh, 1931; McCollum v. Board of Education, 1948; Lynch v. Donnelly, 1985; Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986, etc. Federer, America’s God and Country, 595-613.
9. Contrast Barack Obama’s Quotes About Islam With His Quotes About Christianity. Retrieved 22 January 2016
10. Peter A. Lilliback and Jerry Newcombe. George Washington’s Sacred Fire (Providence Forum Press, 2006).
11. Federer, America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, 644.
12. Revelation 22:17
13. List of multilingual presidents of the United States. (Retrieved 21 January 2016)
14. Senior Hamas leader in the U.S. and member of the Board of Directors for the Muslim Brotherhood in North America.
15. Romans 12:21—“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” See also: Proverbs 16:32, Luke 6:27-30, and 1 Peter 3:9.
16. Luke 19:10
17. The Yusuf Ali translation of the Qur’an reads as follows:

• “Fighting is prescribed for you,” Sura 2:216.
• “Of the Unbelievers: seize them and slay them wherever you find them; and in any case take no friends or helpers from their ranks,” Sura 4:89.
• “Allah has granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit at home,” Sura 4:95.
• “For the unbelievers are open enemies to you,” Sura 4:101.
• “From those too, who call themselves Christians, we did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent to them: so we estranged them, and with enmity and hatred between one and the other, to the Day of Judgment. And soon will Allah show them what they have done,” Sura 5:14.
• “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he among you that turns to them for friendship is of them,” Sura 5:51.
• Of the Jews: “When in their insolence they transgressed all prohibitions, we said to them, ‘Be you apes, despised and rejected,’” Sura 7:16.
• “Many are the men we have made for Hell,” Sura 7:179.
• “I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. You smite them above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them,” Sura 8:12
• “Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war,” Sura 9:5. (Arab means “to lie in wait”)
• “Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks…,” Sura 47:4.
18. Shari’ah is the restrictive code of laws and rules that govern the life and behavior of Muslims.
Based on the Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, it references “a path or way to a water hole in the desert.” Shari’ah rejects these fundamental premises of American society and values:

• The governed have a right to make law for themselves;
• A republican democracy governed by the Constitution;
• Freedom of conscience; individual liberty;
• Freedom of expression;
• Economic liberty (including private property rights);
• Equal treatment under the law (men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims);
• Freedom from cruel and unusual punishments;
• An abiding commitment to deflate and resolve political controversies by the ordinary mechanisms of federalism and democracy, not wanton violence.

19. Dr. William Wagner, How Islam Plans to Change the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2004).
20. Matthew 18:7
21. Debra Rae. “George Washington Inn and the Shot Heard Round the World” (Blog Talk Radio: TRUTHTalk Beyond the Sound Bite, 2 February 2016)
22. Islamic terror on American soil. (Retrieved 22 January 2016)
23. Genesis 25:21 ff.

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