This is your 11th hour wake up call.

There is a book I want to recommend called "Revolution in World Missions" (2003 ed.) which God is certainly speaking to me through.

The author calls Christians in the United States and other western nations to account because of our acceptance of materialism and postmodernism. In fact he doesn't just say we have accepted it, he says a lot of Christians serve both God and made, worshiping idols, because we believe in these other philosophies and worldviews as we believe in God - we are practitioners of the Social Gospel.

K. P. Yohannan correctly diagnoses our spiritual illness as idolatry and rightly prescribes that we turn back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. We have strayed from the true Gospel and adopted the Social Gospel that claims government can solve all of our problems so long as it provides social programs (for Democrats) or leaves us alone and gives us tax breaks (for Republicans). Capitalism is the answer to our every need because the laws of supply and demand will provide for every need of the consumer if the free market economy is left alone. Socialism will provide for every need of the less fortunate who fall through the cracks of the capitalist machine. And communism will make us all equal.

Yohannan calls me back to the foundations of my faith in God, to question all the philosophies of which a degree in Political Science has bestowed upon me. He alludes this idolatry of materialism and postmodernism to the Tower of Babel. And are we not trying to create a utopia where man-made solutions are the prayer and hope of the people? Instead Yohannan calls the Western Church to throw out such teachings and come back to the truth about hell and eternal damnation for those who do not believe in the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Without the true Gospel all peoples are lost to hell, even the hell on earth we try to overcome.

So, do you live in the shadow of hell and death? If you don't, how then can you fear no evil, how can His rod and His staff comfort you - are you even aware that you need protection? I am regularly reminded of sin and hell, and the need for my own salvation. Praise Jesus for it! I am moved to great sadness for those who die without Christ as their savior for they have no one to stand between them and God in judgement, no one to say he or she belongs to Me and "I have known him/her."

Every single person you walk past, drive by, stand or sit next to today will one day face that very same situation, as will you. Your living in the presence of hell and death is essential to their salvation. (I almost typed "Your loving..." but isn't it just the same?) If you don't love those around you with the kind of Love God has for you, enough that he would DIE a most horrible death, innocent, and for no other reason than to be with you for all eternity... if you don't LIVE in the light of that truth how will others be saved from hell? I know I certainly need to live more like that.

Christians and Political Partisanship

There are several issues that have a lot in common with each other. The Global Slave Trade, the heavy debts of African, Latin American, and South East Asian nations, Immigration, the Iraq War, and the 2008 presidential elections. The one thing that each of these issues have in common is the value we place on the quality of life for every single person.

When I say "we" I refer to Christians (those who truly are followers of Christ, and those who associate themselves with the label, or pretend, and therefore deceive others, leading them astray). If you follow logical thinking and believe Jesus Christ was a loving, peace seeking man you will be convinced of the truth of his teachings. But only until you understand the significance of what he did as the divine Son of God - sacrificing himself as a blameless atonement for the sins of the world will you see through the rhetoric of partisanship, Democratic and Republican politics.

I am always amazed by Christians who praise God for saving them from hell and judgement on Sunday and on Monday seek blood in Iraq. Now, I do not mean to say we should pull out or stay in, or whatever. But when a man says that the Iraq War is an unjust war, that Christians are supposed to be peace seekers and only willing to commit to the Augustinian guidelines for a just war after all other options to prevent war have been exhausted... when Christians scoff and boo and the idea of such an "unpatriotic" idea I seriously question their commitment to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I question how they can honestly call themselves evangelical, or even fundamental Christians (when you look up the definition of those words you strip off the connotations which have been attached to them).

When true Christians truly concern themsleves with being Salt and Light in this world and seek the righteousness of justice for all people they will immediately cast off what it means to be a Democrat or a Republican, finding that neither party comes close to the truth, and neither can be seen as the savior of the Christian voting block.

Would Christ not condemn a President or Congress for their strong arm tactics which keep billions of people impoverished around the world because of a fiscal foreign policy which emboldens the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to force Third World governments to accept unfair economic policies? I have heard people say that Africans do not know how to govern themselves, and jungle wars will be the future of this continent. Latin Americans are always loyal to radical communist dictators and military generals - they refuse to choose democracy and capitalism, in fact some are hotile to free enterprise and human rights. The only answer is to help these people by trying to govern them as much as possible from Washington.

Terrorists have emerged over the last 30 years and are now bent on destroying the United States, the most noble, peace loving, human rights oriented nation on earth. They hate us because we are free! I ask you, in all of history what nation has ever been attacked ONLY because they lived as free people? I can think of none. Do not deceive yourself into thinking the United States is an innocent nation, nor that Congress and the President are above corruption.

I don't mean to say all this to slander my country. I love this country. I love our Constitution and honest hard working and good hearted people I know in this country. However, I don't allow myself to think the good deeds and hard work of myself and my community are replicated in the Federal Government. I mean sure, a few good people are in government, but if they were all good people we wouldn't have scandal after scandal.

What I want my fellow Christians to realize is that if they are serious about their faith in Jesus Christ and his redemption, peace, and restorative work on this planet we have got to overcome the falsehoods, deceptions, brainwashing, and lies we have allowed oursleves to beleive and act upon.

Why do millions of people migrate and immigrate to and from countries every year? Basically its because they can't live a quality life in their home country. All people want the same basics of a quality life: employment, food, rest, medical care, education and a future for their children. People will sell their possessions and even themselves for even a glimmer of hope for social mobility. Unfortunately 27 million people have been trapped in slavery in our modern world. Extreem poverty has caused parents to sell their children, young single mothers to trust strangers to take them hundreds of miles in hopes of a job, only to be fooled and sold into slavery. Whole families have sold their life's possessions at a chance of stowing away in shipping containers and trucks comeing into the Unites States, hoping for a better life here in our country. Thousands have died when their "guides" abandoned them in port or a trucking depot when the authorities got too hot on the trail. Nearly 250,000 people are currently enslved int he U.S. because their "guides" turned out to be slave drivers, telling them they must work to pay off the cost of getting them into the country.

I'm not asking you to change your opinion about what is right when it comes to debts that are owed to the U.S. by the governments of other countries, or that illegal immigration should not be considered illegal. I am asking you to expand your mind to see why people want to come here, and how those nations incurred those debts in the first place. Did the United States strong arm its way into the internal politics of nations during the Cold War? Did we not overthrow the democratic government of Iran and install the Shah? How many military dictators has the U.S. supported in Latin America? Why did the U.S. support aparthied in South Africa? Billions of dollars went to these nations and to the dictators we put in power, when these nations defaulted on theor loans and failed to pay us back they accumulated monstrous fees and interest rates, plunging them further into debt, and subject to our will so long as we continued to offer minimal debt relief as long as they did our bidding. And we listen to religious leaders who call for the assasination of world leaders who try and throw the United States out of their country, or heaven forbid try and get American companies to pay taxes for being in their country. Leaders are threatened with economic sanctions when they dare to presume to treat the U.S. as an equal in trade negotiations and treaties.

If Christians in the U.S. were truely interested in the quality of life for all people, we would make sure our government, our financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF all dealt fairly with other nations. Trade agreements that force nations to do what we want and/or make it easy or manditory that American jobs be sent over seas are neither fair, free, nor trade.

I encourage you to learn more about these issues, and write actual snail mail letters to your Congressmen.

Find your Representative by entering your zip code in the top left corner, click here.

Find your Senator in the top right corner, click here.

How to write a letter to your Congressman, click here.

Learn more about debt cancellation for the Thrid World.

Learn more about modern day slavery.

The Housing Market and Federal Interest Rates

The housing market is in trouble, and it does threaten to seriously hurt the rest of our economy. Listening to National Public Radio today I heard that people's spending habits are affected by the value of their home. In other words, if you have a house worth $300,000 and you only make $55,000 a year you tend to spend outside of your salary range. Now, this is disturbing all by itself, but the fact is that home appraisals are falling and freezing. Home sales are slowing dramatically, and it has become a buyers market. When it is a sellers market home values rise and people make lots of money on the sale of their homes. Not only are home sales going to continue to go down, but they are going to go down even more because home construction has almost stopped. The natural slowing down rate is going to get worse as the new homes that were going to be on the market do not go on the market because they were never built in the first place.

This is going to have an immediate effect on all industries that make the raw materials for homes. Lumber, electrical, stoneware, ceramics, chemicals. Tens of thousands of immigrant workers are going to seek work elsewhere, fewer jobs are going to be available for ALL people living in this country, and people are going to stop spending as much as economic conditions restrict and businesses respond by getting rid of or reducing bonuses. Management is going to get laid off.

The only thing that can make this housing market turn around is the Federal Reserve Bank lowering interest rates (actually they should have never raised them in the first place, and certainly not as high as they are). The unfortunate thing is that the Fed is a private bank, a company. They have no accountability to the public, to which they have so much control over. How then can they be made to stop the deterioration of the housing market?

Maybe the best way would be to return the control of our currency and its value to the U.S. Congress - as it is stated in the Constitution.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Does anyone want to write a letter to your Senators and Congresperson? What should we say in a letter? I would recommend a letter because having experieince with this, and working in a Florida State senator's office I know that letters are given more wieght than emails.

Thirsty for Leadership

Are you thirsty for leadership? Over the past few months I have been learning and being reminded of things about my own generation, and the generations that are following mine. We are thirsty for leadership, the kind that sticks around and does what is right and good.

When I went to the Florida Annual Conference in June I heard from someone my age portray the general attitudes and beliefs of my generation. The one thing that struck me was that he mentioned how broken this generation is by its experience with leadership. This generation knows all too well the deterioration of institutions. We have seen American presidents lie, cheat, steal, and kill, all in the name of "upholding the Constitution of the United States." We have seen our parents divorce, we have gone through broken public schools, we have very little assurance of Social Security, even less assurance of a good career and the American dream.

You can argue against Social Security, say that the American dream comes at the expense of slave labor and sweat shops, politicians lie, and all sorts of things can be said. But the fact still remains that the things were were told were good, and reliable have been yanked away or left us standing alone in the proverbial shopping mall too many times to be forgotten and forgiven. Many in our generation are embittered, cynical, lost, and hopeless.

I refuse. I will not, can not live in a world where the hope of Jesus Christ's work on this earth is ignored and forgotten. He came to start the new creation. We are in the in-between times right before the New Heaven and New Earth are going to come and take away the evils and corruption of this world. I have that hope, but it overflows into this world as well. Christians are already in that world, but we live here. We have a house in New Jerusalem but we pay homestead taxes on our residence here.

So the question is how do we begin to make things better? Do we envision a world where one day life will be cherished and sacred? How do we start down that road? How do you teach society how to honor life?

I hear people talk about what is the right thing to do, how something should be done. I hear commercials on the radio say that their organization is dedicated to a just and more equitable society. The truth is, everyone wants a world where its safe to leave your door unlocked, where people are polite and friendly at the grocery store, where neighbors care about you, your family, and your property. Police and authorites would probably prefer corporations to be honest book keepers if it meant more Americans had secure jobs, which might lead to less people commiting crimes out of despiration. Waitresses might appreciate more Social Security if it means old ladies would leave a better tip so they could afford to put more food on the table at home. And teachers would appreciate it if parents would realize that public education is not a substitute for parenting and can never replace the impact of a parent reading to their child, helping with homework, and heaven forbid actualy assigning their own homework to add to and supplement their education at school.

This is sort of what I am talking about. Ways of thinking about society and how the actions or inactions of people affects the whole society on an individual basis. One person's greed in a corporation leads to the laying off of thousands or the fact that they no longer have retirement benefits. How are things like this fought, and how do we start making it better?

The Battle Won

The following are some excerpts from "Following Jesus" by N. T. Wright. I wanted to include these quotations because they shape my thinking about my responsibility as a Christian to be salt and light in society (which includes political issues).

I highly encourage you to buy this book. It is a short 114 page book of reflections on Christian discipleship taken from scripture and applied to our modern historical context. The quotes below come from N. T. Wright's reflections on Colossians.

Paul wrote from prison a stunning short letter, in which the victory of Christ over the powers becomes and central and vital theme. But what are these 'powers'?... force, power, climate, entities bigger than the sum total of the human beings involved... All things were made in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. All things - including the 'powers'! The world is not ultimately divided into bits that are irreducibly good and bits that are irreducibly bad. Everything - the invisible things as well as the visible - was made by the creator, through the agency of his eternal Son...

What happens to people who stand up to the powers? It looks fine for a while; and then the tanks roll in. Anyone looking at the crucified Jesus would draw the conclusion that that's what had happened. The powers killed him: that's what they do to people who challenge them. The powers nailed up above his head the charge of which he was guilty: he was a rebel... And he goes on his way, the way of the cross, the way which totally subverts all the earthly powers.

I would like to thank Nick Read Brown for helping me to understand that the way to prepare myself mentally for living out faith in light of the very powerful 'powers' of this earth is not to ignore them, but to defy them, subvert them. My intentions were on the right path, but Nick helped me to see that a battle plan for subversion and defiance is guaranteed more success than ignoring the strength of the 'powers'.

And so the third point that Paul makes about the powers, astonishingly, is that they have been reconciled to Christ. Having been defeated, they are not annihilated. God is in Christ making a new world; now, however, brought into new order under the authority of Christ. God intends the powers to serve him, and to serve and sustain his human creatures.

I wanted to reference "Christ & Culture" by H. Richard Niebuhr here. There are "types" of Christian ethics as defined by this book; 'Christ above culture' is one of those types. I recommend this book to anyone up for a challenge that stretches theological understanding and knowledge of the English language. Secondly, I want to point out N. T. Wright's subtle reference to the concept of a 'New World Order' that has been coined by 'powers' of this earth for their own motives.

Paul's vision of the Christian life is thus of a life lived between D-Day and VE-Day. We are called to thanksgiving, where we stand at last in the truly human relationship to the creator and the world; and we are called to thanksliving, where we behave as the free subjects of the true king, and owe the powers nothing at all.

How can we celebrate and put into practice this victory today? How can we follow this Jesus into the genuine victory? It is surprisingly simple. Every time you kneel down to pray, especially when you pray the prayer of the kingdom (which we call the Lord's Prayer), you are saying that Jesus is Lord and that the 'powers' aren't... And every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ in a way which , by the power of its symbolic action, resonates out, into the city, into the country, into the world, into our homes, into our marriages, into our bank accounts... And if we grasped that vision and lived by it, we would be able at last to address some of the problems in the Church and the world that loom so large and seem so intractable. The battle has been won; let's get on and implement it.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

For those of you who do not know a lot about the travesties going on in the Department of Justice (DOJ) I strongly encourage you to search for videos of Congressional hearings that have been held in the last months, and the one which was held today by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Patrick Leahy's opening statement was a good summary of the shocking things that threaten the things which make this country good like the separation of powers, the balance within the separation of powers that divides our government into three balances with checks and balances over the others. A system I know that you are aware was designed to keep the abuses of an absolute tyrant from oppressing free citizens of a republic, a public that governs the government by the absolute authority of law written down on paper. The very thing implied in the strength of this system is transparency, not secrecy. Abuses of power thrive on secrecy. The most threatening force to the DOJ is the influence from the White House to politicize decisions that should be made based upon the ideals of justice. It is after a very simply named department of justice. It has no other name. It's mission is evident in its name.

If you watch the footage from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings from the Attorney General (AG) Alberto Gonzales of June 24, 2007 you will know of the closeness with which the White House and the DOJ have worked during the terms of President Bush. Previously, there was authorization that allowed for only a handful of people authorized to communicate from the offices of the Chief Executive of the United States and the offices of the Attorney General. Under Alberto Gonzales' predecessor's direction these safety valves were removed and now virtually anyone from the White House can communicate with anyone in the DOJ and assign any task or collect any information he or she many deem necessary.

In other words, corruption, and at the very least an imbalance in focus on issues of law enforcement. Justice, by nature is an impartial force, yet the executive branch is charged with the execution of the law. The DOJ then should be under the direction of the President, but operating on a daily basis with a degree of autonomy incorporating the broad directives, if any, from the White House into its constant an unwavering duty to the guiding principles of justice, not the selective ambitions and ideologies of one man or group of men in he executive.

The Office of the Attorney General does have the potential to be an autonomous office of government. And no new laws are necessary. We already require the position to be filled by appointment of the president and with the advice and consent of the Senate. This is the system of checks and balances working through its designed purposes. It the Senate could be persuaded to hire an AG only once they have been satisfied he or she has met certain requirements and passed their scrutiny then the deserving candidate should become AG.

The problem is that appointments are generally made because Congress is seeking favor with the White House, either with new presidents, or at other times when appointments are traded for vetoes and votes are traded for funding.

The government is screwed up, but there are ways to improve it. Should the Senate design a list of questions, an examination process, to be built upon by successive classes of the Senate - after which the successful candidate will be the appointed AG? As I understand it the President places an ad for applicants to vacant positions. Whether or not the president wishes to appoint friends and neighbors, or only the most qualified people to offices of government it should be the final decision of the Senate to accept or deny the nominations of the president. All candidates for the position of AG should be subject to the same scrutiny. What makes such a public list or written job description so important is that the Senate conducts the interviewing process and they are subject to our public pressure.

What then can we do to make ourselves active in this process and attempt to bring more salt and light to the Department of Justice?

Link to C-SPAN video of Gonzales hearings: http://www.c-span.org/

For Fun

I thought that there should be some designated space for fun in this blog, so this post will be devoted to quotes. Please comment and add your favorite quotes.

To start us out, and I think most appropriate for embodying a Christian value, and thus one embraced by truth and this blog:

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."—Edmund Burke