Saturday, May 10, 2014

A Call to Christians, Libertarians, Occupiers, Hacktivists, and all Activist Groups: Unite! Pray! Stand!

You don't get documents like the Constitution of the United States of America, the Declaration of independence from any religion, non-religion, atheism, paganism, or agnosticism or any other aside from Christianity, the Bible.  All men are created equal with inherent worth.  Men are endowed with certain unalienable God given rights.  Liberty.  Freedom.  These values flow inexorably from the Judao-Christian realm of values.

And without those firm convictions upon which this country was founded, firmly planted in practiced Christian faith, criminals will ransack and pillage the country, change the laws, disassemble the Constitution and turn this country into an oligarchy of privileged bankers, corporate owners, and media talking heads.  That's what we're seeing today, isn't it?

People have divorced themselves from any sort of creator, and taken up the lifestyle of pleasure-seekers.  Meanwhile, as that pleasure seeking, movie watching, bar hopping, consumer society becomes the dominant majority in the country, in the background the USA is quickly becoming quite corrupt.  Congress tends to be owned by various companies and banks.  Many members of Congress are former employees of major companies like Monsanto, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan.  The current head of the FDA is the former vice president of Monsanto, a company that has been notorious for it's corruption in regards to genetically modifying food, and sue harassing organic farmers.

The Citizen's United ruling by the Supreme Court allowed corporations to fund political campaigns with unlimited amounts of money.  If you recall, the average American is limited to contributing only several thousand dollars.

The quiet militarization of police forces has been taking place in our country.  Just a few days ago I read an article in Wisconsin of a police force in Neenah, only about 45 minutes from here, that accepted a military vehicle to add to their police.  Click here to view that article.  There are many other reports of such developments as well.  Of course the major networks don't cover these kinds of stories.  They have their funders and advertisers as well.

I could go on like this for pages and pages, with credible sources and information that would rattle your bones.  I don't want to get too political in this piece or this blog all together, because it just hurts to see a country founded on Christian principles descend into criminal corruption and loss of rights.  I assume most Christians understand that government, our government is very corrupt.  It seems like a lot of Christians don't understand that; they don't read the news that's really going on, all they see is the celebrity gossip and talking heads on CNN, Fox, and NBC arguing about issues that don't matter to hide the big issues in the backdrop.  Unfortunately it's not 1996 anymore.  We're not in the booming era of American wealth and personal freedom, it's 2014, and corruption and depravity run rampant. 

Unfortunately there isn't much we can do as Christians.  I pray about this stuff.  I pray about it a lot.  I get upset sometimes when I pray about it too.  But I keep praying.  Many Christians, many evangelicals cast votes.  But unfortunately, since the 2000 election there have been increasing reports of voter fraud, voting fraud, and election rigging.  There was evidence in 2008 of vote fixing for John McCain over the evangelical candidate, in 2012 that was evidence of vote fixing in the Republican primaries to put Mitt Romney over the other front runner Ron Paul.  And really, that makes sense doesn't it?  The Republican party is a southern, evangelical, working man's party.  And the nomination goes to a rich, northern, Mormon, draft dodging banker CEO -- Mitt Romney?  Click here for a comprehensive list of reports of just such in the 2012 presidential election

It goes much deeper than all of the information I've listed thus far, but from this point we'll move to the resistance.  In response to these developments in the USA, we've seen several large activist movements start up.  Some of the most notable are the Tea Party, springing up from corruption in the Republican party.  Then you've got the Occupy movement, springing up from corruption in the Democratic party, and more particularly, to corrupt business practices on Wallstreet.  Following a group called Anonymous started, self proclaimed "hacktivists" in response to calls from people like Julian Assange founder of Wikileaks regarding mass corruption in business and banking.  Zeigeisters came about as well, looking to free themselves from the evils of organized religion and corrupt government.  Libertarians have taken center stage lately as the growing movement of liberty minded politically aware activists.  The Tea Party fizzled and fell apart due to involvement from the Koch brothers, and the mainstream media at the same time manipulated the Tea Party and sort of forced it back into the general Republican party.  The Occupy Wallstreet movement fizzled as well, losing media coverage and were bulldozed out of all the major cities, as Obama declared his support for the Occupiers.  There was also the Solidarity fight in Wisconsin over collective bargaining rights, fizzled and the recall election failed in the end. 

So, theres a little recent history regarding political activism movements in the past twelve years or so.  In the past I worked as a political journalist and investigative journalist, so such trends have always interested me.

Neil Postman wrote, in his book "Amusing Ourselves to Death: "“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business 

I don't think Postman is entirely correct though.  He is right in all his observations, aside from the last line.  Indeed Huxley was quite right, but Orwell was just as right.  In my view, what Huxley predicted is being used to march in what Orwell predicted.   

 So there you have it.  A socio-political analysis, a culmination of ideas and thoughts pointing to one issue, all leading up to.. what?

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life!  We all need Jesus.  I want my libertarian friends to know Jesus.  I want my hacker friends to know Jesus.  I want my occupier/zeitgeist friends to know Jesus.  I want everybody to know Jesus.

There is no God in 1984 or Brave New World, they are imaginations of what has become, with no hope and no escape.  But there is a God.  He is the massive deus ex machina that can counter these dark developments in the USA.  Two thirds of the signers of the declaration of the independence had seminary degrees.  It's in the life blood of the country itself.

Zeigeisters and Occupiers are wrong because they believe in the all powerful goodness of the group and the evil designs of the individual.

Libertarians and Tea Partiers are wrong because they believe in the all powerful goodness of the individual and the always evil designs of the group.

We evangelical Christians know, or at least we ought to know that both the group and the individual are evil and corrupt.  That's the whole problem!

And it's why the free market capitalism will always fail, because even if you totally deregulate to allow for growth and prosperity, eventually corporations and banks, merge, and merge again, and buy each other, and merge, that you have monopolies in every market and the production quality drops, people stop buying, and the corporations and bankers of those mega entities wield so much power and authority they can force the government to pay up, bailouts, corporate handouts, and so on, putting on life support dead corporations and banks that have monopolized and bloated themselves into bankruptcy.  On the same hand placing increased power and regulation in the hands of government has the tendency to choke the private sector, walk all over personal rights, money vanishes, and corrupt government leaders take total control.  Either way, free market or government strength to regulate eventually both collapse under the weight of human nature, sin.

Jeremiah 19:7 (ESV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Thankfully, when we believe in Jesus Christ and accept him as personal Lord and Savior, he is gracious to help us become good, slowly over time.

Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

For the sake of my activist friends, who I see complaining about the Pope and Vatican corruption and the evils of faith in the world, let me ask you something: Aren't we painfully aware that so often the truth is protected by a bodyguard of lies?  This is the case with Jesus Christ.  His reputation, the lies spread about him, can never, and do never survive what is written of him in the Bible.  Seek him out,  he is our only hope against the illuminati, the international bankers, and the widespread corruption across the Earth.  Jesus Christ was not a Pope ruling over the ignorant masses, he was a humble servant walking with the poorest of the poor, healing the sick, and he did just what we do as activists; he called out the hipocracy and evil of the religious leaders of that time in history.  His heart ached and he wept over the sorry state of Israel, of how all the lies had become front and center, and the truth was hidden in the background.  We feel the same aching when we see corruption and wicked men stupifying the masses and stealing money from the poorest of the poor.  Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of our principles.  Jesus Christ was the truth in human form. 

And Jesus Christ successfully resurrected from the dead, just as the Bible says.  William Lane Craig and other great apologists argue quite effectively for the historical fact of the resurrection.  Twelve men, all testified to meeting and interacting with the resurrected Christ, and eleven of those men died for that belief, historically, never changing their story even when faced with death.  The 12th was unsuccessfully poisoned, and later wrote the final book of the Bible, Revelation.

The reason the world is so screwed up, is sin.  Jesus Christ, when we love him and believe in him, he gives us a new heart and he starts to change who we are.  It has to start with us, and then we welcome others to that same act of change.

I'm an evangelical Christian, which means I'm also Protestant.  The primary divide in Christianity is between Catholicism and Protestantism.  I know a lot of you are activists and don't know a lot about the history of Christianity.  But in the 14th century the Catholic church had become extremely corrupt.  They didn't allow the Bible in any language but the one their priests knew.  A great man named Martin Luther stood up against the corruption and evil living of the Popes back then.  He translated the Bible into German, when it was only in Latin and Greek at the time.  And protestantism was formed, leading to greats like John Calvin, Welsey, and Spurgeon.

See, the idea of a pope isn't even Biblical.  That's not our team.  The group hiearchical nature of Catholicism became corrupted, of course it did.  We're Protestants, we believe strongly in the individual autonomy of small churches, to prevent just such top heavy corruption like that of the Vatican!  Protestantism is a giant umbrella for all the Christian faiths that rely entirely and only on the Bible for what we believe.  The Catholic church relies on the Pope for their authority, what they believe and so on.  Under the umbrella of Protestant is pentecostal, baptist, evangelical, presbyterian, and various other denominations.  The reason for denominations is different doctrinal beliefs, but we're all on the same team, we're all Christian brothers and sisters who love Jesus and one another.

In the same way, I believe libertarians, tea partiers, hacktivists, occupiers, and even zeitgeisters are all generally on the same team!  We all want the best for the country and recognize the utter corruption of the mainline Republican and Democratic parties, and I'm here to tell you two things:

First, we have to unite under as a signal powerful entity to challenge the moneyed companies and banking institutions that have taken our country hostage.  Second, we need to Jesus Christ.  God loves us.  He loves our commitment to liberty, to truth, to love, and to justice.  God loves justice.  But we're facing a massive force with incredible power, influence, and money.  By the time a movement even starts they're attempting to infiltrate it, place their talking heads at the top of the movements, and then strategically scatter them into the wind.  But with prayers, with the Bible, with Jesus, we can unite and receive God's blessing to reclaim the country by way of the truth.



John 8:32 (ESV) And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 18:37 (ESV) Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Jesus Christ is truth my friends.  Consider the things I've written.  Take a look at the blog.  I know activists are people who are not stupid, and they want arguments, information, evidence.  Christian apologetics is the coherent reasonable defense of the Christian faith.  Consider going to Youtube and searching for talks from great apologists like Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig, and organizations like the Veritas Forum and the CS Lewis foundation.  I'm telling you the truth, there are reasonable and coherent philosophical, scientific, and empirical arguments and evidence for the existence of God, the historical Jesus, and the authority of the Bible.

Then pick up a Bible.  Give your life to Jesus Christ.  Join a church.  And continue your activism work.  Pray, unite with the various other factions of dissenting America, and take the country back.

This is a call for hope.  God be with you all.


Resources:
Bible Gateway - free audio Bible / text Bible multiple translations
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - free PDF, a fair, thorough look at Christianity
Youtube: Mark Driscoll: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? 
Youtube: Ravi Zacharias: The Philosophical Truth of Jesus
Youtube: William Lane Craig: Evidence for the Existence of God 
Youtube: Ravi Zacharias: Christianity and the World
Five Presentations on Christian Philosophy by Ravi Zacharias
Vintage Jesus series by Mark Driscoll