Don't buy your own rope

I have a confession to make -- I’m a kitchen gadget junkie. I have a very hip coffee grinder. Not long ago I had baking sheets custom made to my specifications. I have an electronic food scale that calculates percentages and measures in tare weight. (Yes, I know how to use it!) The cool kitchen gear? I want it all. And the best place to buy that kind of stuff in my town is Bed Bath & Beyond. They’ve got all the goodies. But before you go rushing out to check out their toasters, let me tell you that this is not an ad for BB&B.

I haven’t been in their store in over a year and plan to go back sometime a week or two after never. I don’t have a problem with customer service. I think their line of products rocks. They are a little pricey, but the quality justifies it. What isn’t justifiable is that a portion of the sweet cash I’ve parted with in their facilities over the years has landed right in the pockets of people like Barry Obama and Hilary Clinton. It breaks my heart, I tell you, to not shop there any more, but it breaks it more to know that I’ve financed the rope that’s hanging us. Now I get my gadget fix at a local restaurant supply house.

Here’s another heartbreaker: Starbucks contributed enormously to liberal politicians, including a hefty contribution to BHO. I love my occasional latte, but I love my liberty more. Now I get my caffeine fix from a little kiosk store about three blocks from my house. It is independently owned and operated by a solid Christian family. When I plunk down cash for coffee with them, I know a chunk of that money is going onward to support God’s work and, just as important, that none of it is landing in any pocket belonging to an enemy of liberty. Plus, they always say, "have a blessed day," when they give me my change. I really like that.

Have you considered what happens to your money after it leaves your pocket? I doubt that you would hand a $10 bill to a drunk panhandling on a corner. If you’re anything like me, you would be concerned about the misuse of that money after you left the scene. The same responsibilities apply to all your spending. Have you considered that when you buy your kid a Star Wars action figure, a percentage of that purchase goes to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who in turn hand it over to the very enemies of America you oppose?

Conversely, have you considered that your money might be of greater service if you kept it in the Christian community? When I buy my coffee from my Christian friends at Hot Shots, I’m plowing my money back into something I truly believe in and can be proud to support.

Before you shop, consider checking out who you’re shopping with. A good place to start is with CampaignMoney.com or OpenSecrets.org. Both sites give fairly comprehensive lists of political donors, contributions and recipients. The darkness that has befallen our country is bad enough. Let’s not help it along by financing the bad guys.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Gal. 5:1

Why this blog?

There are something like 138 million blogs on the web. Why on earth should anyone start another one? Plenty of folk blog every day about this nation’s political or religious condition. What else needs to be said? I willingly admit that there are smarter people out there, more polished scholars and greater wonks write among us. So why am I doing this?

I have to. I cannot not. I read those blogs and when what I read rings true (a rarity) it doesn’t make any difference! We sit in front of O’Reilly or Beck or Anderson and listen to what they say and shake our heads and mutter, “Ain’t it awful,” then grab the remote and go on to ESPN as though what we had just seen and heard were fiction. We talk Obama and Pelosi and Reid to death and then go grab a pizza and a movie like it doesn’t matter.

I understand. When I was a kid, some four decades ago, I remember hearing historians and philosophers of the day talking about how nations come and go and that every nation is bound to fall sooner or later, even America. Such talk filled my 10-year-old mind with wonder. I could not even imagine my America falling. This was the land of Washington, of Adams, of Lincoln. This was where slavery ended. Weren’t we founded on principles and dedicated to propositions that held true eternally? We conquered a continent. Surely we could conquer the future! I would almost as readily believe that Jesus was a Muslim as believe that America could fall. Our foundation was firm, our purpose was clear, our destiny was forever.

But here we are, 40 years later, and that nation is all but gone. My father died in 1962. If he were resurrected today and allowed to catch up on our news and culture, he would be hard pressed to recognize this land as America. If you’ve been around as long as I have, you know precisely what I mean. What is happening to us is just so far removed from our vision of ourselves that it’s hard to accept it as real.

But it is real. And the sooner we accept that, the sooner we can deal with it. Maybe, if we can muster the courage to do and not just talk, we can actually fight the future. If you are an old-timer like me, you may wonder, what’s the point? And, frankly, for me, the point isn’t me. It’s my kids. Maybe it’s your grandkids or nieces and nephews or simply the kids in your church and your neighborhood, all of whom deserve a better future than the trash we’re leaving them.

So what do we do? If you ask that question in the appropriate circles, such as, say, your Sunday school class, you will probably get about six instant pious, “we should just pray,” responses. Like all huge lies, that one is about half true. We should pray and pray hard. We will certainly not turn things around without the hand of God. But check your Bible. Did Moses just pray? Did Joshua? Samuel? David? Solomon? Did Jesus? No, no, no, no, no and -- no! The righteous prayer is for getting marching orders, not ordering up security so we can go back to ESPN. Before George Washington accepted the office of general of the continental army, he prayed and fasted three days. He was wise to do so, but then he got up and fought with every resource he had. Had he not done both, the world would have rolled on in tyranny and the tyranny would have grown. Pray then, but then let’s get ready to act.

The first thing we must learn is that we must unlearn the lessons of Henry David Thoreau. Passive resistance only works when the oppressor values virtue even as he or she has fallen from it. The classic examples where it has worked, in freeing India from English rule and in gaining civil rights for blacks in America, only worked because the British ruling class and the American government saw virtue as something to be grasped and held on to. But, for America at least, that was 40 or 50 years ago. Ancient history.

The current crew in Congress -- and most judges and state governments for that matter -- despise virtue. You need only look at the growing list of states that recognize the cohabitation of perverts as equal to holy matrimony to see that. If that doesn’t convince you, consider that we as a nation have butchered 50 million of our own children with full legal impunity -- an act which both parties in and out of power have supported in order to get a fist full of votes from radical hedonists. You need only flip back through the last few years of news and read the ever-growing list of rapists, druggies, thieves, and thugs who have emerged as national leaders. One widely recognized murderer sat in a seat of power for 30 years, only losing his position when he died last summer. Make note, people with no morals will never yield to moral persuasion!

I cannot just talk any more. I am sick with talking and talking and just watching our nation’s funeral on C-SPAN. We look at each other and say, “Well, what should we do?” Then we shrug and go back to our everyday lives. That has to stop. We have to find ways. We must organize. We must form effective resistance. A Tea Party that dumps no tea is just a party. We must think past the “ain’t it awful” syndrome and begin to do. We must learn to trust one another and, in many cases, become trustworthy. We must begin to think beyond habit and tradition and work toward a nation, either this one or a new one, that respects and honors virtue and virtue’s God. It will not happen without God’s help, but it will not happen while we sit on our hands, either. This is not simply a choice or a whim; it is our spiritual duty. We have waited so long that we dare not wait any longer.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Gal. 5:1