Old America, the land of the free and the brave is gone. In a media-fed Panic, Cities shut down, transportation is closed, and America shows the world we are affrighted souls that will cower before a Winter snow.
Once upon a time in a faraway place called Chicagoland, there were two seasons of the year that were always inevitable. Everyone knew they would come, and everyone knew they had to deal with them.
They were the dreaded seasons of Winter and Road Construction.
To date, these are two seasons that even the nonsensical hype of global warming and “climate change” cannot affect. In fact, I have discovered that in most urban and big city areas, these two seasons are like peanut butter and jelly. One will follow right after the other. Once upon a time in America, you shrugged your shoulders, perhaps you cursed, you rolled up your sleeves or windows and you slogged through both of those miserable seasons until you got to where you were going. Get there you would, no matter what it took, and no amount of complaining and whining would make any difference. You just dealt with it.
In the old days, school rarely, if ever, closed for the weather – and most folks braved elements that today’s wimpish people would not dare contemplate themselves enduring.
I remember vividly, the Blizzard of ’79 in Chicago. The two full days of wet snow dumping without ceasing, followed by a bone-chilling wind that would rip right through you. School was canceled only after about 8 inches fell, and I recall fondly the memories of digging out cars, shoveling off our roof (because the weight of the snow had been collapsing roofs in some suburban shopping centers) building the world’s largest snow forts and having days on end of Winter fun sledding off our roof and pummeling passers-by with snowballs.
Our parents and elders did as they always have done; curse the weatherman for a faulty forecast and trudge on out to shovel some more and help dig our neighbors. We would clear the streets before the plows walled-off homeowners in mountains of wet snow and slush that required immediate shoveling, or it would freeze at the end of your driveway into an impenetrable wall that one could not breach until perhaps late April. We made great money that Winter shoveling out neighborhoods and helping to excavate cars from snowdrift prisons. Blizzards and storms were not some kind of apocalypse or ‘historic’ event back in Old America.
In Old America, we used to call modern-day ‘snowpocalypses’: Winter. We called what the Northeast saw this week: Winter. We expected it would be bitter cold and we expected at some point or many points depending on how Winter rolled, we would have mountains of snow that would stay on the ground for months and over-time, plowed mountains of snow would turn soot-black and hang around parking lot light poles until mid-June. Those who loved the snow as we did, prayed and jumped with glee for forecasts of a foot or more of the white stuff, and even when rent could not be made unless every day was worked. A snow day was a welcome break in the bleak days of Winter.
I remember in 1979 that despite being buried in snow and drifts over 3 feet, life went on, and pretty quickly. Schools were opened as soon as the main roads were cleared. People went to work. I recall reading complaints from those in the city limits where the response to clearing the streets was slow. In fact, I think it was common knowledge that due to secondary streets being unplowed for a month, stalled L-trains and busses and trash piling up – that the mayor lost his reelection bid to a Jane Byrne. The politics of that Winter outlasted the snow in terms of memory for many Chicagoans.
We never needed to turn to the media or the government to tell us what to do to “prepare” for a winter storm. Perhaps in the event of Nuclear fallout from a Russian ICBM we might incline our ears to hear what we should do in the event Chicago got glassed by the Russkies – but not for flakes falling from the sky. We were not dependent on either the media or government to tell us what to do. We just did as we each saw fit, and most often, it was the right things to do.
That was then, back in Old America – back when America was a free country with a people that laughed at adversity and slugged themselves through difficulties, often without much complaining. It was what you did, back in Old America.
But this is no longer the America we once grew up in. In today’s America, the Praetorian Crisis-centered 24/7 media stokes a panic that today’s Nanny-State Government Politicians seize upon to impose quasi-martial-law and shut down entire cities if flakes are forecast to pile-up into more than a few inches.
So the blizzard of 2015 in the Northeast comes a-calling – not exactly Miami or Kingston Jamaica unfamiliar with the white stuff, and I offer the lunacy of this event as a text-book illustration of how wimped-out and afraid of our own long shadows of Winter Americans in Nanny-State Leftist controlled New America have become.
The hordes of megalopolis Northeasterners, like dutiful sheep freaked-out, and lined up in the elements as if waiting for tickets to a blockbuster, to invade stores like locusts to “prepare” for what was promised to be a ‘catastrophe’. Food staples like beer, M&Ms, chips, pretzels and wine flew off shelves. Carry-out establishments were mobbed with orders for citizens who have no knowledge of how to work a microwave oven. Lonely souls who were told everything, including bars, bathhouses and x-rated clubs were shutting down, put out invites on Craigslist for sexual partners to share the time whilst Winter destroyed civilization around them.
…would undoubtably be a just-cause to panic and run around screaming that the world was indeed, coming to an end.
So, with the entire city closing, curfews being imposed and threats of fines for being outside after 11 PM, panicked residents crammed the highways and bottlenecked themselves into a parking lot as snow began falling. So, as I watched in amusement from afar – noting that the media makes every single weather event a :”catastrophic crisis unparalleled in human history” to push the GlobalWarming/Climate Change narrative down all out throats, I mused to myself that never before in the history of the country, has an entire city been shut down in fear over a potential weather event that had yet to occur.
So Tuesday morning dawns on America’s largest and “most important city”, to a blanket of…. 6″ of snow that covered a ‘City that never sleeps – but will shut down the moment there are flakes in the forecast”.
The media asks “What went wrong with the forecast?” as if it was not the panic and the hype that was overblown, misused and wrong – but the variables in the forecasting itself. Urging Americans to become helpless wimps beholden to the media and government is not to be questioned, but the weather forecasters for getting it wrong. Of course the agenda of Climate Change continues to be whipped about like a chain mace that it’s wielders promise to flog us with until everyone agrees for the remedy for regular Americans to go back living as if it were the 1600’s – minus coal and wood burning stoves.
I have to scream: “IT’S WINTER YOU IDIOTS! IT SNOWS BIG SOMETIMES IN THE WINTER AND GETS COLD!” Have we really become a nation of helpless wimps that need the media and government to turn every potential issue into a life-threatening crisis that demands we accept quasi-martial law? Or are we being conditioned for the same? Are we truly stupid enough to let ourselves be conditioned to accept such a fate?
This ridiculous event makes it a frightening prospect, that if ISIS and the Jihadist Caliphate wanted to conquer New York City – all they would have to do is forecast a blizzard or some weather event to shut down the city and impose martial law.
Americans have become afraid of their own shadows at the urging of the media and the government whom they have made into their god. Or at minimum as this event illustrates, afraid of some snowflakes.
As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into your hearts in the lands of your enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall. They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand up before your enemies. ‘But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you.… – Leviticus 26: 36-38
Absolutely everything a sane American needs to know about Obama’s State of The Revolution speech on Tuesday is contained in the following 2 minutes:
UPDATE – It is absolutely AMAZING that of the thousands of clips of the Star Wars trilogy that have been on Youtube for YEARS, the video I posted has been blocked worldwide by Youtube based on a supposed complaint by ‘Fox’, which no longer has copyright to those movies save the first one, since they were sold to Disney by Lucasfilm. I uploaded the edit onto the link provided, and it will be interesting to see how long it will remain before they too block it.
See, the video is a perfect parallel of the transition of the Old Republic in Star Wars Episode III, into a despotic tyranny by a dictator – with nearly identical clips of Obama’s speech on Tuesday night. As Senator Amidala notes the delegates clapping like trained seals of what will eventually become their doom and slavery; “So this is how liberty dies…. to thunderous applause”.
On ‘fundamentally transforming the United States of America’, Barrack Hussein Obama declares that he has ‘laid a new foundation’ for the country, ‘to remake America’ into the self-evident Despotic Fascist Marxist state we warned you was coming.
“Fifteen years into this new century, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and begun again the work of remaking America. We’ve laid a new foundation.” – Barrack Hussein Obama, January 20th 2015
If you are like the overwhelming majority of Americans who refused to waterboard themselves by watching or listening to the Soviet Party Speech given last night at a joint session of the politburo – eerrr….Congress, you missed nothing that your discernment and imagination already told you Obama’s speech would likely be.
It was a given His Heinous would channel Fidel Castro while sounding like Santa Claus and display the pompous arrogance of Benito Mussolini on crack with none-too-subtle threats for any opponents of his agenda. There was only one single surprise, that came at the very end of his vomitous bilge. That surprise being an admission that most will refuse to believe he actually said or meant.
You see, the only thing that matters in the entire “State of the Union speech” which was really just a neo-Nuremburg Rally from a teleprompter for the Obama Party – was that Dear Leader actually told the truth at the very end at the second-to-last paragraph that he read aloud.
He stated openly that he was remaking America, and had laid a “new” foundation for the country. A foundation intended to replace the Constitutional Foundation the Founding Fathers established and bequeathed to this nation. And like trained clapping seals, the entire Congress applauded that outright boldy-stated treason. For the oath to the Constitution Obama had sword to uphold, was admittedly broken by his own admission that he has replaced our existing foundation with this ‘new one’. Not to mention harboring an Illegal Alien that he flaunted in front of the nation so as to demonstrate his being above any laws he does not decree himself.
In that admission, after ninety minutes of ridiculous out-of-this-galaxy Bovine Excrement and Barbara Streisand, Obama finally told the truth of what he has done and is doing.
Obama just told us that he has replaced our Constitutional foundation for the purpose of REMAKING America. Never has there been such an in-our-face-moment of treason in our nation’s history . However, the stupidity, lukewarmness and ignorance of a majority of Americans makes lawlessness and treason from the highest office in the land, non-existent unless you are a Conservative Tea Party person that must be considered evil and dangerous for nothing more than demanding those governing us be restrained by the law they swore to uphold.
Not even the Soviets could have dreamed of conquering us in complete totality as Obama just demonstrated he has done. Admitted to the whole world that the nation is being remade with a new foundation instead of the one we had for 238 years, and an entire nation being sold into despotism, is absolutely clueless to what just happened to it.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: – II Thessalonians 2:11
And to quote cultural entertainment for a prophetic quip that sadly, can be carved onto the tombstones of every Republic that came into existence (including our former Republic):
Under the false guise of ‘protecting those in uniform’, White House Propaganda SpokesImbecile Josh Earnest says Obama has a “moral responsibility to push back” whenever journalists’ work may provoke jihadist attacks. Obama and Democrats then retreat for meeting in cloak of secrecy with media banned.
We all warned where Political Correctness would one day go; to the government BANNING free speech. And so, the opening volleys of what we predicted have now been made official.
In the aftermath of the French Charlie Hebdo Jihad attacks, Obama’s actions and lack of action demonstrated his written promise to “Stand with the *Muslims* should the political winds shift in an ugly direction” and snubbed the Unity March against Islamic terrorism with the rest of the world’s leadership. Upon the international and domestic outrage of his snub, His Heinous sent John Kerry with singer-songwriter James Taylor to sing “You’ve got a friend” to the French leadership, in an ultimate gesture of American insanity and stupidity in order to give the middle finger to the world’s stand against Islamic terror.
Obama then lectured that Europe must do more to ‘integrate Muslims’ into their cultures. You know, the religion that declares in the Koran that it has a duty to force conversions to Islam by the sword or KILL the infidels wherever it finds them. Obama advocates European suicide because obviously, the welfare states that have made native Europeans minorities in their own countries are not enough to stave off the ‘inevitable acts of extremism that took place in France’.
In the subsequent press briefings at the White House, Josh Earnest in attempting to excuse the 2012 White House opposition to Charlie Hebdo’s satirical stabs at Islam, made it clear in a White House Press briefing on January 12th, that Obama has a “moral duty” to quash and restrict journalism that he says is offensive to Islam or may provoke Jihadists. And like clapping seals, the Praetorian Media dutifully seig heil’s our first Emperors justification to ban any Journalism he says is *offensive to Islam* right before he banned all press from reporting or even being present at his secret retreat meetings with Senior Democrat Party officials over this weekend, where topics would range from his proposed Federal takeover of all Community Colleges to our response in France to the ‘workplace violence’ that took place there.
First Amendment? Obama don’t need no stinking First Amendment, and by his decree – neither do we.
There is truly no end to the string of outrages perpetrated on our nation by Barack Obama (or whatever his real name is). The laundry list seems interminable, and today we can honestly regard anyone—anyone—who supports this man and his administration as being dangerously deceived. There is simply no defense of this lawless “president,” who is a clear and present danger to our freedoms, our economy, our healthcare system, our property rights, the freedom of the Internet, our military and national defense—every aspect of our constitutional Republic.
Many of us have long observed that Obama has traitorously aided and abetted our Muslim enemies, giving them weapons, billions of taxpayer dollars and their formerly-imprisoned “soldiers of Allah,” to continue the spread of their cancerous caliphate across the Middle East and elsewhere. If we didn’t know any better, we would believe his sympathies lie on the side of the barbaric Islamists. In truth, we don’t know any better. The only rational conclusion is that this man is an enemy of the United States.
Therefore, it was no surprise, but no less outrageous, when the Daily Caller reported on Tuesday that the White House Minister of Press Propaganda, Josh Earnest, reported that Obama wants to squash freedom of the press. Well, that’s not exactly how he put it. From the Daily Caller piece:
President Barack Obama has a moral responsibility to push back on the nation’s journalism community when it is planning to publish anti-jihadi articles that might cause a jihadi attack against the nation’s defense forces, the White House’s press secretary said Jan. 12.
“The president … will not now be shy about expressing a view or taking the steps that are necessary to try to advocate for the safety and security of our men and women in uniform” whenever journalists’ work may provoke jihadist attacks, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House’s daily briefing.
Isn’t this always the case? Our freedoms are so often stolen by facetious claims of “safety.” It’s why we stupidly stand without shoes in airport “security” lines, and like sheep, allow junior power-trippers of the TSA to grope our bodies before boarding a plane. “Safety.”
So, Obama, who believes the Muslim “call to prayer” is one of the “prettiest sounds on Earth,” wants to protect from offense the delicate sensibilities of his jihadi brethren by preventing the media from reporting the truth about Muslim jihad. Excuse me, but that’s not the American way, Mr. Quisling! Aside from the fact that one of our most sacred, God-given freedoms is freedom of speech, which includes freedom of the press, Americans do not bow to 7th century throwback Muslim bullies. But I don’t believe we are being ruled by an American—at least not in the theoretical sense of the word. Whatever Obama is, regardless of where this mystery man was or wasn’t born, he is not behaving like an American, much less an American President. He is behaving as a despotic, anti-American enemy within our nation.
As with everything this man and his fellow travelers do, the ostensible reason is not the reason. Spokesmouth Earnest claims Obama’s desire to squelch media expression is for the “safety” of our military troops. That’s a lie. Since when does Obama give a rip about the military, much less its safety? Besides the fact that, if left to its own power, free from insane bureaucratic rules of engagement, the military can take care of itself, the past has shown us that caving to bully Muslims will never appease them. It only makes us appear weak and ripe for attacking. No. I’m certain that the real reason for this lunatic anti-American proclamation is that Obama agrees with one goal of the Islamists: to silence all criticism of Islam. He is just as offended by it as the most retrograde Muslim brute. After all, he claimed the future must not belong to those who “slander” the “prophet” of Islam, right? And, in this case, “slander” means “tell the truth about.”
I’m losing what little optimism I might have had about our chances of undoing Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of the United States. This man and his criminal cabal have their evil machine set on “full demolition,” and with a craven, corrupt Congress too scared of its own shadow to oppose him, and with a detestably compliant media—no longer a “free press,” by the way—from where can there possibly emerge a force to stop or reverse this dreadful course of tyranny on which we’re locked?
Individuals and organizations that attempt to restore the values that our founders once believed in so strongly are regarded as dangerous “extremists” that need to be watched carefully
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” – Barrack Hussein Obama
This is an update to a story that we first blogged on back in August of 2013. Given the recent events in France and Obama’s deliberate absence of any senior U.S. officials from the Unity against Islamic Terrorism March, that Obama declares ‘war’ on ‘violent extremism’ sets off alarm bells with those of us who understand who this government under Obama considers to actually be an ‘extremist’.
I’m literally watching the scriptural curses God warned His People would come upon them for forgetting their God come to pass in another fulfillment right before our eyes:
The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away… The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. – Deuteronomy 28:25-28
Is there any doubt that this nation is full of madness, blindness and confusion of mind from it’s leadership on down? The madness of refusing to utter the plain truth of the war being waged by Jihadist Islam? The willful blindness that insists and pretends Islam is not a threat to life, security and peace? The absolute confusion of mind that is presented by the media as ‘fact’ in this upside down nation?
Clearly, it’s not Islamic Jihadists that the American regime is preparing to go to war against, but rather, patriotic Americans who still ‘cling’ to what we once were and whom do not share the Leftist/”progressive/Marxist view of the world. The truth of whom this government under Obama sees as the true threat and enemy ought to frighten every American right out of their socks, because it is YOU the Obama regime has already targeted as an ‘extremist’ in official government documents.
Do you know what an “extremist” is? In the wake of the horrible terror attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in France, Barack Obama is speaking very boldly about the need to win the war against “extremists”, and he has announced plans to host a major global summit on “extremism” next month. And on the surface that sounds great. But precisely how are we supposed to determine whether someone is an “extremist” or not? What criteria should we use?
As you will see below, your definition of an “extremist” may be far, far different from the definition that Barack Obama is using. When you do a Google search, you will find that an “extremist” is defined as “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action.” According to Wikipedia, “extremism” is “an ideology (particularly in politics or religion), considered to be far outside the mainstream attitudes of a society or to violate common moral standards. Extremism can take many forms, including political, religious and economic.” Please notice that neither of those definitions uses the word violence. In this day and age, you can be considered an “extremist” simply based on what you believe, and as you will see later in this article there are now tens of millions of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” and “potential terrorists” according to official U.S. government documents.
When you use the word “extremist”, you may have in your mind a picture of ISIS fighters or the terrorists from the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
But for elitists such as Barack Obama, the word “extremist” has a much broader meaning. In recent years, it has become a code word for those that do not have an “enlightened” view of the world. If your views on politics, religion or social issues are extremely different from the liberal, progressive views of “the mainstream” (as defined by the mainstream media and by “mainstream” politicians such as Barack Obama), then they consider you to be an extremist.
Early in the presidency of George W. Bush, we were told that Islamic terrorists were the enemy. And so most of the country got behind the idea of the War on Terrorism. But over the years that has morphed into a War on Extremism. In fact, the Obama administration has gone so far as to remove almost all references to Islam from government terror training materials…
Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole confirmed on Wednesday that the Obama administration was pulling back all training materials used for the law enforcement and national security communities, in order to eliminate all references to Islam that some Muslim groups have claimed are offensive.
“I recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security,” Cole told a panel at the George Washington University law school.
Now, much of the focus in law enforcement training materials is on “domestic extremists”. We are being told that “domestic extremism” is just as great a threat to our national security as terror groups overseas are.
But exactly who are these “domestic extremists”?
Well, the truth is that you may be one of them.
I want to share with you a list that I have shared in a couple of previous articles. It is a list of 72 types of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” or “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents. This list will really give you a good idea of what Barack Obama means when he uses the word “extremist”. Each of these 72 items is linked, so if you would like to go see the original source document for yourself, just click on the link. As you can see, this list potentially includes most of the country…
Meanwhile, our liberties and freedoms are being eroded a little bit more with each passing day. In the name of fighting “terrorism” or “extremism”, our government is constructing a Big Brother police state control grid all around us. I like the way that Ron Paul described what is happening to us just the other day…
If Americans were honest with themselves they would acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All liberties in America today are under siege.
It didn’t happen overnight. It took many years of neglect for our liberties to be given away so casually for a promise of security from the politicians. The tragic part is that the more security was promised — physical and economic — the less liberty was protected.
With cradle-to-grave welfare protecting all citizens from any mistakes and a perpetual global war on terrorism, which a majority of Americans were convinced was absolutely necessary for our survival, our security and prosperity has been sacrificed.
It was all based on lies and ignorance. Many came to believe that their best interests were served by giving up a little freedom now and then to gain a better life.
The trap was set. At the beginning of a cycle that systematically undermines liberty with delusions of easy prosperity, the change may actually seem to be beneficial to a few. But to me that’s like excusing embezzlement as a road to leisure and wealth — eventually payment and punishment always come due. One cannot escape the fact that a society’s wealth cannot be sustained or increased without work and productive effort. Yes, some criminal elements can benefit for a while, but reality always sets in.
Reality is now setting in for America and for that matter for most of the world. The piper will get his due even if “the children” have to suffer. The deception of promising “success” has lasted for quite a while. It was accomplished by ever-increasing taxes, deficits, borrowing, and printing press money. In the meantime the policing powers of the federal government were systematically and significantly expanded. No one cared much, as there seemed to be enough “gravy” for the rich, the poor, the politicians, and the bureaucrats.
The country that our forefathers founded is dying.
Now, individuals and organizations that attempt to restore the values that our founders once believed in so strongly are regarded as dangerous “extremists” that need to be watched carefully.
Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize what is happening to this nation. As long as they are fed a constant diet of mindless entertainment, most Americans are perfectly content to let “the experts” do their thinking for them.
We are steamrolling toward oblivion, and most of the country is dead asleep.
A lukewarm, dead and dying church stuck in tradition and rigidness is driving away the very people they were sent to save
Interesting essay and honest explanation of how the Christian church in America is dwindling. While the author has several excellent points, and his overall message is a good one, he misses some very blatant truths that we must understand in order to apply the great admonition he gives the church in America at his conclusion. My comments are not intended to criticize, but add some weight and gravitas to the issues that are driving many out and away from the Church. My comments are from viewing the problems he cites from a pastoral/missionary perspective. I would definitely read the entire essay, my comments follow the quote boxes.
Being on the other side of the Exodus sucks, don’t it?
I see the panic on your face, Church. I know the internal terror as you see the statistics and hear the stories and scan the exit polls.
I see you desperately scrambling to do damage control for the fence-sitters, and manufacture passion from the shrinking faithful, and I want to help you.
You may think you know why people are leaving you, but I’m not sure you do.
You think it’s because “the culture” is so lost, so perverse, so beyond help that they are all walking away.
You believe that they’ve turned a deaf ear to the voice of God; chasing money, and sex, and material things.
To diminish the Churchs’ view that this culture’s glittering temptation and focus on money, sex and material things is a major factor in the shrinking church in America is a gross misunderstanding of a key device Satan has used to blind the church in America. We do believe many are not interested in God because the pursuit of the flesh is indeed a major focus of the American/Western mindset. If chasing money, sex and material things was NOT a major focus for many Christians , why is it the Joel Osteen Health/wealth Prosperity Gospel is the largest growing ‘church’ for so many?? Look, I’ve listened to Osteen’s Zig Zigglar self-help positive thinking path to wealth and riches gospel. It attracts many like moths to a flame and at the same time runs off many more in disgust and shame. Osteen himself preaches chasing money and material things (Name It and Claim It physical blessings) as the sign of a ‘mature Christian’ and that those who suffer without such things ‘lack faith’. Under that false gospel, when money, sex and material things do not visit those who pay homage to that doctrine, many do lose heart and faith in the church as a whole and decide to pursue those goals outside of a Christian framework.
You think that the gays and the Muslims and the Atheists and the pop stars have so screwed up the morality of the world that everyone is abandoning faith in droves.
To subtly suggest that those agendas have not assisted in the abandonment of the faith is also a major oversight. In fact those agendas have watered-down the church because the very people this author is citing for leaving the church are the same people who see nothing wrong with homosexuality, affirm there are many paths to heaven and that pop stars are the definition of their generation. The church itself has been influenced greatly by those things, which is why praise and worship has become a hip-hop concert for many and churches who speak out against the homosexual and secular agendas are targeted for blame in this exodus he addresses.
But those aren’t the reasons people are leaving you.
They aren’t the problem, Church.
You are the problem.
Let me elaborate in five ways …
1. Your (Church) productions have worn thin.
This point while excellent and true, contradicts the earlier statement of Church opinion that gays and pop stars have screwed up morality. The church itself is mimicking much of the cultural rot that is popular in order to attract ‘believers’. But his point about much of what passes for ‘praise and worship’ being white noise with little sustaining substance during the rest of the week is spot-on.
2. You speak in a foreign tongue.
…You’re holding onto dusty words that have no resonance in people’s ears, not realizing that just saying those words louder isn’t the answer. All the religious buzzwords that used to work 20 years ago no longer do.
Very true, and also you can add varying church traditions that are defined as doctrines to that mix of ‘foreign tongues’. Making scripture and the faith relevant in this evil world is imperative. Sadly what often happens is that the church either makes doctrine of utmost importance to the exclusion of all else, or it compromises the faith and the scriptures to make the culture relevant in the church, rather than the church being a relevant force in the culture.
3. Your vision can’t see past your building.
The coffee bar, the cushy couches, the high-tech lights, the funky Children’s wing and the uber-cool Teen Center are all top-notch … and costly. In fact, most of your time, money and energy seems to be about luring people to where you are instead of reaching people where they already are.
Perhaps the greatest indictment in this essay that I wholeheartedly agree with. Missions seem to the be the very first thing churches cut from their budget as the greater Church in America turns inward to satisfy the ‘needs’ of the congregation that wants all the accoutrements of comfort and provision for their ‘experience’. Instead of a place that people come in to sharpen iron so they can GO OUT into the world to do Matthew 28:19-20, the Church sets as it’s marketing goals a place for people to come in….and stay in.
4. You choose lousy battles.
We know you like to fight, Church. That’s obvious. When you want to, you can go to war with the best of them. The problem is, your battles are too darn small.
I would modify this one and say that churches love to fight one another over doctrine and easy cultural skirmishes, but when it comes to the real heavy issues where Satan has the high ground; abortion, homosexual marriage, sexual addictions, promiscuity, adultery and divorce – the church not only runs away from confronting those sins and agendas, but has surrendered to them completely.
5. Your love doesn’t look like love.
Love seems to be a pretty big deal to you, but we’re not getting that when the rubber meets the road. In fact, more and more, your brand of love seems incredibly selective and decidedly narrow; filtering out all the spiritual riff-raff, which sadly includes far too many of us.
It feels like a big bait-and-switch sucker-deal; advertising a “Come as You Are” party, but letting us know once we’re in the door that we can’t really come as we are. We see a Jesus in the Bible who hung out with lowlifes and prostitutes and outcasts, and loved them right there, but that doesn’t seem to be your cup of tea.
To the world, our love does not ‘look’ like love because this wicked world has redefined what ‘love’ means.
This culture under Satan has redefined ‘love’, and the church has swallowed that baited trap hook, line and sinker. “Love” in this culture has been redefined to mean “accept” and “tolerate” which graduates to ‘compromise’. Because if we tell a sinner to overcome his sin (i.e.; homosexuality) the church is automatically declared to have no love or ‘tolerance’.
Yet the scriptures explicitly tell us that God has no tolerance for sin, and as a direct result of it, sent His only Son to DIE, so that we could have our sins covered UNDER HIM, and live in a new life away and outside of the wickedness of the world.
‘Come as you are’ does not mean ‘remain as you are’ – which many complainers of Christianity make as their justification of hostility and indifference to the faith.
In Revelation 2 & 3, Jesus repeats the same thing to all the Churches: OVERCOME. To him who OVERCOMES will He grant to sit on His Throne. Overcome what? Obviously – sin. That gives bearing one another’s burdens a whole new meaning does it not? If we have no love, we would leave the world to rot in the consequences of it’s sins. If we LOVE, we will point to the path of redemption, reconciliation and OVERCOMING the sin, so the consequences of that behavior are not visited upon men, or their children.
These words may get you really, really angry, and you may want to jump in a knee-jerk move to defend yourself or attack these positions line-by-line, but we hope that you won’t.
We hope that you’ll just sit in stillness with these words for a while, because whether you believe they’re right or wrong, they’re real to us, and that’s the whole point.
What is real to us, is not always what is important to God. Often, with this flesh, what is important to us is the values of this world we live in and the perspectives Satan wants us to see faith in. Scripture says there is a way that seems right (or real) to a man, but therein lies the path to death (Proverbs 16:25). What this essay brings forth should cause us to reflect on the truths cited, but there is much meat that is missing that would lend the warnings and complaints so much more weight.
Maybe I am the problem.
Maybe it is me, but me is all I’m capable of being right now, and that’s where I was really hoping you would meet me.
The failures of the church in dealing with someone struggling with sin, or lost in sin is indeed a major problem that the author rightly addresses. He makes the case for ‘hearing’ his complaint, and he touches on the idea of ‘coming alongside’ those suffering in sin and pain. However, in this current culture that is often easily twisted into the demand to capitulate with sin and ‘not judging sin’. We need to come along side someone seeking, to help them OVERCOME sin, and say ‘this is the Way, walk in it’. Too often that is being defined as ‘intolerance’ and imposition, and the church has not done a good job of defending the need to rescue people out of their sins, because this culture and the church have bought the lie that defining the sin and pointing sin out, is the only sin there really is.
But so too has the Church failed in the manner the author addresses. Rather than helping others come out of sin, there is often ostracization, dismissal and disfellowship, which is what this author addresses as a major contributor to the exodus from the Church.
Bearing one another’s burdens is something the church tends to limit to only helping fellow church members cope after a disaster or trial. Helping someone come out of an addictive behavior or sin is just as necessary. Shame and brokenness can be a weapon Satan uses to keep us from the church and keep the church away from us. Yet, we do not teach brethren Apologetics to be able to say when accused of a sin, that yes – I sin, which is WHY I NEED A SAVIOR. Equipping saints to help others come out of their struggles with sins is a course that has yet to be taught in many mainline and secondary denominations.
So yes, Church, even if you’re right, even if we’re totally wrong—even if we’re all petty, and self-centered, and hypocritical, and critical, and (I’ll say it), “sinful”—we’re still the ones searching for a place where we can be known and belong; a place where it feels like God lives, and you’re the ones who can show it to us.
Depends on what such people are seeking. If they are seeking a place to come be known and belong without any emphasis on overcoming themselves and their sins, by the renewing of their minds, then what they seek is not what the church is for. Jesus said “Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), and while we acknowledge that we may never be so in this life, it does not negate the fact Jesus intended that to be what we strive for as Christians. If people want to find a place where “God lives”, it is going to be in a body that not only loves and praises God, but acknowledges our sins, bears one another’s burdens and helps one another OVERCOME our sins and shortcomings, so we can all learn to put on the mind of Christ, to build Our Father’s character in our minds and hearts.
True love is when you are not afraid to tell someone struggling with sin, ‘Go and sin no more, I will help as best I can to bear that burden with you’. What I hear many say in reply in this culture, is that such a position is intolerance and not acceptance, because our culture demands the Church accept the sinner as they are WITHOUT pushing them towards repentance.
If we are going to truly love someone, we are not going to leave them in their sin, which will result in death, literal and eternal. What we hear many say who are leaving the church is what we read in Isaiah 30:10, Romans 16:18 and II Timothy 4:3. A people influenced by a culture that tells them to give them only smooth and easy things, acceptance, tolerance and a promise of eternal life without transformation.
I see a church unwilling to change staunch unwavering positions of tradition and doctrine to serve the individual. At the same time, I see a church unwilling confront the challenge from the culture, and falling to the demands that they bend and accept every demand the people infected by the culture demand. A lukewarm church is not attractive, because many can see it stands for little or nothing but itself.
And that kind of hypocrisy and weakness is not a place they see or feel a powerful God exists to transform their lives.
The Federal Behemoth in Washington no longer has any legitimate authority over a free people. So what now? Our own history provides the answer.
Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. – Declaration of Independence
Part 2: What Do We Do Now?
In Part 1 of this essay, I laid out the evidence that the federal government is being run by an ideological oligarchy that has corrupted the entire institution of national government and grown into a tyranny. I specifically cited two examples of federal agencies that are completely lawless and being used as weapons against the American people to abolish Constitutional rights. That was last quarter of last year.
The plain truth is this, whether you will admit it openly or not: the federal government can no longer be trusted to safeguard our rights, our liberties or the rule of law to effect our happiness OR our security (open borders with Executive Amnesty decreed anyone?). It has abused and usurped power from the people to implement a design to reduce us all under absolute Despotism. It has made itself above the Law, outside the Law and a law unto itself. In short, it is no different than if the Mafia had taken over the nation.
So what can we do? The Declaration of Independence states that we have a duty to fulfill in the case of tyranny. The argument being waged among those of us who recognize where we have arrived, is what form of ‘throwing off such government’ entails in this ‘enlightened age? Some point to elections and civility within the existing system as our path to throwing off a tyrannical yoke. Let’s take a look at those arguments.
Some say write and call your federal Representatives. I cannot think of anything that resembles passing wind better than this suggestion. I offer that this is as ineffectual as sending another Olive Branch Petition to the Throne of King George. The results will be the same; repeated injury en masse. For petitioning our rulers for a redress of grievances is now being met with the same contempt and charge of sedition as it was when George III did it. Or to use the same phrase as the Declaration: repeated injury.
Some say protest. Another wasted effort. The amount of disdain and contempt by the Ruling Class for liberty-minded Americans and Conservative Christians is off the scale. When hundreds of thousands took the steps of the Capitol to protest ObamaCare and flooded town hall meetings, the Ruling Class ignored and demonized them declaring them to be ‘terrorists’ . When citizens called their representatives to complain, phones are left unanswered or off the hook and e-mailboxes are left full without reply. If an answer is received, often it is a useless form letter or repeated injury.
Some say elect more Republicans. Well, we have over 20 years of results by a people who have been doing so, and I say that is a proven exercise in practicing insanity. The GOP and the nation continue to pick up speed Leftward, until today we are fundamentally transformed into a Marxist/Fascist oligarchy.
The last election more than showcased the fact that the Will of The People will be ignored, undermined and thwarted each time the Oligarchy decides it will not allow itself to be restrained by The People.
So what shall we do? Is it time to grab your gun, pitchforks and torches and head to the village green to face the Redcoats? That history is certainly growing in consideration among many.
Some will argue and rightfully so, that such an acton would give the Fascist juggernaut now ruling us the justification to do what they have already prepared to do to put down their political enemies and create the climate of fear that is next on the schedule to be implemented in the nation to criminalize the very spirit that birthed the nation.
So then what now? Do we do nothing? Do we just keep voting in this shell game of a corrupted system and blindly hope that someday, someone will do something that is not an attack on liberty?
What can we do in the face of our nation being fundamentally transformed into an Imperial Marxist/Fascist Oligarchy with a Roman-esue Senate doing the bidding of a Caesar with Praetorians in the media and every federal agency ready to pounce on whomever is targeted on command?
Our own history provides the answer to what God Himself honored in granting a determined bunch of farmers willing to sacrifice everything, a victory over the greatest military might on earth at the time.
The answer is this: We refuse to comply with edicts from the Federal Beast. We ignore unjust “laws” and “requirements” that contravene the Laws of God, the Constitution and your natural rights as established by God. We no longer consent to be governed by such a tyrannical cabal and as such, we from this point forward, refuse to comply with it. We must remind ourselves that ‘It is better to obey God than men’ (Acts 5:29) as scripture says. He is Our Sovereign, not the regime and it’s proponents now attempting to rule us.
That is what we must do.
And make no mistake, you will be called an insurrectionist, a rebel, a domestic terrorist for daring to defy the bullies in D.C., to which I offer this wisdom from Benjamin Franklin “Disobedience to tyrants is obedience to God”. I state again, the entire Federal Governmental Beast is become tyrannical.
From a purely secular standpoint – since all the branches of the Federal Government can ignore the Supreme Law of the Land; refuse to comply with it’s limitations; decide not to enforce ‘laws’ they do not agree with; and issue decrees of new laws that contravene the existing Constitution; deem treaties signed by the Executive without Congressional ratification ‘law’ – why then are the people obligated to follow what the Rulers on High demand? Can we not also ignore their “laws”; refuse to comply with their edicts; decide not to obey “laws” we do not agree with and deem ‘memoranda’ issued by executive decree unlawful and of no effect? Or have we truly arrived at the time where law only applies to the “little people”; we serfs ruled on high by a Ruling Caste? Are some animals more equal than others in this fundamentally transformed nation?
The answer is obviously ‘yes’ to the latter judging facts and events currently ongoing.
Yet let this truth ring in your ears: a gun to our proverbial heads is the only power a tyranny such as the current Federal Government has over us.
Read that again and let it sink in: the only power the current Federal Government has over us, is a gun to our head with the threat to pull the trigger and put us down. All they have is the threat to strip you of your wealth, property and life at the end of the guns that serve the state and the Caesar. That is the only power they now have.
It no longer has any legitimate authority under Heaven, or the Constitution they have usurped and ignored, therefore We are no longer obligated under Heaven to abide such a tyranny.
From a biblical standpoint the question becomes; are we obligated to subject ourselves to governing authorities that are tyrannical and contravene the Laws of God and our rights?
However, I hold that the Romans 13 argument in the context of obeying THIS CURRENT federal beast, is bogus. Romans 13 specifically tells us that Authorities under God exist to punish evil. What happens when a government authority becomes perverted and celebrates evil and exists to punish the God-fearing? Are we still supposed to submit to that? Are edicts and “laws” passed by such an entity biblically required of Christ followers to obey?
In the understanding of what our Founders wrote on the subject, any order or “law” that contravenes God’s Holy Laws and statutes and principles is not a “law” at all, it is forced sin by government upon those they demand follow it. To them, Galatians 5:1 ended the Quaker argument for obedience to tyranny. For they saw physical tyranny as no different than spiritual sin. Most of them understood a physical tyranny such as they were suffering was the direct result of the sin of the whole people, and the 1760’s were filled with the call from pulpits to get the Colonies to repent and become the instruments against sin and tyranny they felt they needed to be. That became the First Great Awakening.
Yet Pastors today preach that we must submit to such tyranny and limit our duty to praying for Obama and Congress? I believe those that erroneously follow this bogus argument end up making the government their god, thus breaking the First Commandment. Submitting to tyranny is not of God, but of Satan. For tyranny sins against Nature’s God and violates the natural Rights endowed upon His People. As Christians, we have a duty to DEFY and DISOBEY such tyranny, and we have historical precedent for such duties to be blessed by God.
Jonathan Mayhew, one of the first pastors in America to fire the first spiritual volley against the tyranny of the Crown in 1750, spoke at the Old West Church in Boston to lay out the biblical case for disobeying a tyrant and arguing against the Quaker insistence that Romans 13 be followed to the utter end.
As soon as the prince sets himself up above law, he loses the king in the tyrant. He does, to all intents and purposes, unking himself by acting out of and beyond that sphere which the constitution allows him to move in; and in such cases he has no more right to be obeyed than any inferior officer who acts beyond his commission. – Jonathan Mayhew, 1750, ” Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission“
Americans have to come to understand and believe this same thing, before anything else can be done about what we currently are begin ruled by. Let this sink in a moment and let me paraphrase Mayhew’s admonition in modern American English; Americans have to come to understand that Obama and the Oligarchy in Congress have set themselves up above the Law, and because they have done this, they have lost the authority in their tyranny. They have, to all intents and purposes, delegitimized themselves by acting out of and beyond the sphere which the Constitution has allowed them to move in; and in this case they have no more right to be obeyed than any officer who acts beyond their commission.
Understand this; when the government no longer has any legitimate authority over you, all it has in its disposal is brutal force waged at the end of a gun to force it’s will upon you. At one time we used to recognize that as abject tyranny. But no wonder, our people no longer recognize sin as biblically defined, and instead have called evil good, and good, evil. It therefore follows that a majority of our people also do not recognize we are being ruled by a tyranny. Since Satan is a tyrant and his devices are the instruments of subjugation and slavery – is it no coincidence so many Americans are ignorant of similar devices and instruments being used by government to enslave them?
For those of us NOT ignorant of these devices and what now has established itself over us, how do we respond to a tyranny that they think is ‘elected’ to do as it pleases to us? A government that states it has lawful ‘precedent’ to tyrannize us because it is what “the people” want.
Obama said strategically: “The government is us” for the insidious purpose of asserting that the everyone supports government and therefore everything government does, whether tyrannical or not, is legitimate.
Getting a mob on the side of tyranny is a fundamental function of a despotic Oligarchy. To create the illusion that anyone standing up for what is right, is the problem. A problem that the people will applaud the tyranny to ‘take care of’. An approval of a final solution to what the power of the state deems a threat to themselves.
Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro and the host of the last few generations of despotic Socialist dictators have all used this same tactic to great effect.
So ask yourself, do we submit to the threat of impoverishment, destitution, bodily harm and death in the vain hope of remaining unscathed? Have we become ignorant of what ‘We pledge our lives, fortunes and sacred honor’ meant? Have we gone so far as to accept that this government is there for our good? If we do, we break the First Commandment by allowing government to become our god, no different than if Shaadrack, Meschak and Abednego had complied with Nebuchadnezzar and bowed to the image of gold. Submitting to tyranny therefore is breaking the first Commandment. This was the staunch belief of those who fought the lawful, legal authority of the Crown of England over the Colonies.
My countrymen, we are dealing with a Beast. One that not only contravenes it’s established authority within the bounds of the Constitution, but the Federal Beast defies The Most High’s Authority with the agenda it has foisted upon the nation.
When King George III and his Parliament issued the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts – the Colonists openly defied and refused to comply with those decrees. Instructively, upon the establishment of the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty famously chucked all the tea from the East India Tea Company that the Crown was forcing on the Colonists, into Boston Harbor in 1773 – rather than pay the tax. This resulted in the blockade of Boston and an ensuing siege intended to starve Massachusetts into submission.
Notice the order of events in this history: the tyranny of the governing authority issues decrees that trod upon the inalienable rights of the people. The People eventually refuse to comply with those decrees and openly defy them. The Authority then invokes punitive and punishing measures against those that dare defy them. They attempt impoverishment, Siege and privation. Then, if the subjects still refuse to submit and bow down, force of arms is deployed to put down their ‘rebellion’ – with the intent to kill and imprison any who dare challenge the authority.
It is at that stage, and at that point that the God-ordained inviolate Right of self defense is authorized, and indeed was used against the governing authorities. To be blunt – when the tyrants sent armed shock troops to seize their weapons and force them to comply at gunpoint and occupation – the Colonists resisted the authority of the crown with lethal means.
Which by the way, is the ENTIRE reason and purpose of the Second Amendment, and trust me when I say that the Regime in power will eliminate that Right as soon as they are able to do so because they KNOW what the intent of that Amendment is, which is why every single despotic regime that comes into power ALWAYS disarms the very people they intend to destroy.
So again, what do we do now?
We do as our forbears. We should first repent of our individual sins, work towards national repentance – and refuse to comply with the wickedness and tyranny being foisted on us by Imperial decree. As history teaches, a tyranny will never abide or allow a people who refuse to comply with it’s edicts and demands. They will crush such people and/or force them to comply by imposing every form of despotism, punishment and threat it has at it’s disposal.
Nothing new under the sun. Our Founders understood that completely.
When the Signers of the Declaration declared their vote for Independence and put their names to the parchment, it was not lost on a single one of them the gravity of what they had just done. They understood that in all practicality, they just signed their own death warrants. A long silence settled on the Continental Congress as everyone silently contemplated what their action would result in. The quiet was broken by Samuel Adams who defined what it was that they had really just accomplished by voting to rebel and defy the King and Parliament. He said:
“We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.” – Samuel Adams July 4th, 1776
The revolution against the lawful authority of a government that became a tyranny was a direct affirmation that the King and parliament had usurped God’s Sovereignty over His People. Refusing to comply, and then resisting the force being sent to subjugate them – was a solemn duty for the Christian, and it was that understanding and determination that led to the willing sacrifices to establish liberty on this land.
Sadly, human nature has not changed in 238 years, and neither has man’s desire to rule over others. America was an anomaly in all written human history, yet today we willingly have surrendered ourselves to the very system that has enslaved people since The Garden, submitting to a government that makes itself absolute ruler. A free people should only ever remain beholden to the Supreme Governor of the Universe, not submitting itself to a tyranny that stands for overt sin, wickedness, corruption and greed.
Know this truth – a people who will not be governed by God, will be ruled by the tyranny of men.
If we would be free indeed, then submitting to God first is our duty – and then to stand against any encroachment made against it by every and all means.
Our history gives us the clear blueprint of what we can and should do from this point forward, in resisting tyranny. The tyranny we suffer today may actually be insidiously worse than what the Colonists endured, because so many refuse to see it as a tyranny.
C.S. Lewis adroitly notes the kind of ‘soft tyranny’ that Alexis DeToqueville warned about:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
The soft tyranny that we have allowed ourselves to live under is now morphing into a police state that has iron fists staged all over the nation. We either refuse to comply and be ready to suffer the inevitable efforts of punishment by the illegitimate authority in the righteous cause of Restoring The Sovereign in our lives. Or we surrender to the tyranny of men and the god they have erected to subjugate us.
Refuse. Defy. Then, when the tyrants send agents of the state to force it’s will, Resist.
Will we cry “Give us Liberty or give us Death!” or will we cry “Give us the promise of bread so we can live!”??
It is up to us now to decide how we will respond to tyranny, for assuredly those in power have already decided how they intend to deal with you.
Sword At-The-Ready 