Chuck Colson

I only met Chuck Colson on one occasion and it was purely by accident. I was boarding a plane with my wife, Kathi, and Chuck was already seated. I immediately recognized him and extended my thanks to him for his great leadership of the Christian cause. And for former US Marine and ex Nixon “hatchet man”, Charles Wendell Colson, that’s exactly what Christianity was, a cause, not an institution.

I could have met Chuck Colson many years earlier when he first got out of prison.A long-time friend, Lee Edwards, invited me to hear Colson speak of his spiritual conversion just prior to entering prison. Lee ran something called the Monday Club that featured news makers and conservative leaders. I’d gone a number of times, but I had no interest in hearing Colson. As far as I was concerned, Colson was not to be trusted and his so called “conversion” was just a ruse to advance some corrupt agenda he had.

I couldn’t have been more wrong and I regret to this day that I did not attend that meeting of the Monday Club. Chuck Colson was, like St. Paul, an unlikely Christian leader. Here is how an obituary of Colson written by his friend, Jonathan Aitken in Christianity Today described Colson before his transformation…

“When the [Watergate] scandal broke, the press and the prosecutors had Colson in their sights. They knew he was a major contributor to the unsavory moral climate inside the White House. He first hit the headlines in 1972 when he wrote an internal memo with the line ‘I would walk over my Grandmother for Richard Nixon.’ That symbolized his end-justifies-the-means ruthlessness as a political operator. It was no surprise that he became a prime suspect for being the architect of Watergate.”

“As he was later to admit, Colson had no moral compass for the first 41 years of his life. In that period he occasionally described himself as ‘a nominal Episcopalian.’ This was a considerable stretch of the word nominal. He was so unchurched that he had no idea who the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son were. The only recorded example of a conversation about faith during his political career ended with Colson telling his first Christian interlocutor, Fred Rhodes, ‘Oh, I think religion is fine, provided one has as little of it as possible.”

But by the time of Colson’s trial he was changed man. As Aitken tells the story in Christianity Today, Colson was sure he would not go to prison, so even though he left the White House under a cloud, he was determined to rebuild his law practice. In pursuit of this goal…

“He called on Tom Phillips, the chief executive of Raytheon who had recently come to the Lord at a Billy Graham rally. Colson was hoping to land some of Raytheon’s business. Instead Phillips talked with passion about his newfound faith and read aloud some passages from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.”

“Colson first thought his host’s religious views were ‘pure Pollyanna.’ But the reading from the chapter on pride in Lewis’s book (The Great Sin) struck home. So did the prayer Tom Phillips said at the end of the evening asking Jesus Christ ‘to open Chuck’s heart and show him the light and the way.’ Later that night Colson broke down in tears at the wheel of his car and offered a prayer of his own. As he climbed into bed he told his wife, Patty, that he thought he’d had a conversion experience—but he did not know what that meant.”

Colson did have a true conversion to faith in Jesus and one of the first testimonies to the reality of that conversion is described by Aitken…

“Painful though it was, Colson’s repentance was authentic. The most dramatic sign of this was that he became so convicted of sin that against the advice of his own lawyer he decided to plead guilty. To do this he had to find a unique section of the criminal code (18 USC Section 1503), under which he admitted ‘disseminating information whose probable consequences would be to influence, obstruct and impede the conduct and outcome of the criminal prosecution of Daniel Ellsberg.’ Since Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon Papers was never prosecuted, this plea was (to put it mildly) a legal oddity. But in the fevered atmosphere of Watergate a judge accepted it and sentenced Colson to a 1-3 year prison term.” The length of the term was later commuted by pardon to 7 months.

I was, as previously noted, unaware that Colson had truly repented. However, I took notice when Colson started Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976 and then one day, on the recommendation of a friend, I picked up one of his books, Loving God. From that point forward I made it a point to read every book by this great Christian leader, commentator, activist, and apologist. It was in the pages of Loving God that I really began to understand what it means to be a Christian and to have a Christian world view—a term popularized by Colson. After reading Loving God, I read his bestseller,Born Again, which he wrote while in prison and that was published shortly thereafter. I not only read Colson’s books, but gave away many, many copies of his books including my two favorites, The Body and How Now Shall We Live?

No one, in my opinion, served as a better and more articulate spokesman for the Christian cause in the 20th Century than Chuck Colson. He was courageous when he spoke, whether it was in some of the worst prisons in the world, or when he was speaking to so-called Christians who showed no compassion or love for those who were in need. He rebuked those who only lived their faith on Sundays or only in the presence of those who were fellow believers, but lived like they were “of the world” during the week.

Chuck Colson “sold out” for the Lord. Yes, he was a sinner, just like all followers of Jesus, but he dedicated his life to serving the Lord. He was compassionate and committed, but he would not compromise his faith. He was an entrepreneurial risk taker who would boldly proclaim the saving good news of Jesus when others shrank back in fear.

He challenged Christians, including myself, to not only proclaim their faith, but to live as Jesus did, showing compassion to the poor, and helping the downtrodden.He encouraged Christ followers to look upon their treasure and wealth as God’s gift to be used in the pursuit of helping others and to proclaiming the Gospel. Throughout his 20 some books he told stories of great sacrifice made by Christians to assist others and to share the Good News of Jesus. His personal hero of the faith was William Wilberforce, the 18th century member of the British Parliament who, at great personal sacrifice, dedicated his life to ending the English slave trade.

Through BreakPoint Radio, his daily radio program broadcast over 800 radio stations, Chuck Colson spoke plainly and directly about our culture. He used this pulpit to encourage Christians to develop a Christian worldview that would govern their daily lives and transform American society.

Today Prison Fellowship Ministry is a global ministry, serving prisoners and their families in 150 nations. Colson also launched Justice Fellowship (a Restorative Justice ministry led by my friend, Pat Nolan), Angel Tree (that provides 300,000 Christmas gifts a year to the children of prisoners) and InnerChange Freedom Initiative (which spawned 15 Christian run prisons across the globe). In 1993 he was awarded the $1 million Templeton Prize for Religion which he donated to charity.

In the 21st century we need many more leaders like Chuck Colson who not only believe in Jesus, but seek to lead believers out of their comfortable lives to be participants in the Christian cause. For Chuck Colson, the race is run and the victory’s won! Pro Gloria Dei!

Fairness Foolishness

 I know it doesn’t sound fair, but the thing that strikes me the most about President Obama is the fact that he knows so very little about any important topic or issue.  I’m not suggesting that he is not smart, but rather that he fits Bill Buckley’s analysis of liberals in general, “It’s not that they aren’t smart, it’s just that so much of what they believe to be true isn’t true.”  The list of things that the everyday man or woman on the street knows as common sense seems to be beyond the grasp or understanding of our young President. 

Perhaps I should not be surprised.  Barack Obama’s resume is short and unimpressive.  Yes, he attended private schools with great reputations, from the elementary level, through prep school and on to Harvard.  So what?  Theory is great, but life is reality.  There’s no practical grounding in the President’s biography.  What jobs has he worked (I mean real jobs, not community organizer or government jobs)?  I’ve never heard that the President has worked a real job in his entire life, have you?  Being President of the United States is not supposed to be on the job training.  It’s not a job for ideologues or demagogues.  It’s a job for men and women who have practical experience in the real world, not the theoretical world of academia.  It’s a job for someone who understands the frailty of human nature.  It’s a job for someone who has been around the block a few times and worked with people enough to understand that there is no super race of humans, that they are all flawed and that all tend toward self-aggrandizement and personal power.

Only then can a President understand the philosophy of our Founders.  They feared a concentration of government power more than anything else.  They were tortured by the idea of creating a new society that would slide into the age old problem of rule by a few for the benefit of a few.  They were moral men and great students of history.  They were men and women who had much practical, real life experience under their belt, even at a relatively young age.

That the Obama Presidency is a failed presidency is on display for all to see.  It never got out of the starting gate.  It has been a presidency that cast aside all the wisdom and commonsense of those that preceded it and instead grasp onto a philosophy of powerful, centralized government that would have been an anathema to every one of the Founders.  It has embraced economic policies, social policies, domestic policies and even foreign policies that have never worked and will never work to the good of our nation. 

Socialism may sound good in the faculty lounge, but it’s about as practical as Plato’s Republic, Thomas More’s Utopia, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, or Karl Marx’s Communist state.  It’s all dream world fantasy that leads to terrible misery and a loss of individual freedom. 

Today President Obama is running for re-election.  He can’t run on his record of less jobs, high taxes, less individual freedom, government cronyism, racial division, and over the cliff trillion dollar spending, so he has instead, decided to run on the issue of fairness.  In doing so, he plays fast and loose with the facts and counts on the misinformed and the uninformed to carry the day for him.

The problem with this strategy is that the President’s underlying idea of fairness is wrong and, in fact, his idea of fairness will lead to less fairness and further destruction of the American economy.  In short, the President is doubling down on his failed ideas and policies and hoping that a majority of the voters in November will believe his foolishness.  Of course, from a political perspective the President’s strategy may be a good one, no matter how cynical it is.

Let’s start with the President’s proclivity to take Bible quotes out of context.  The President is fond of saying that the wealthy should contribute more.  When Bill Clinton was in the White House he rolled out the idea that taxes were contributions and that everyone should contribute more.  Any fool knows that compulsory taxes are not the same thing as freely given contributions.  If you don’t pay your taxes,serious men in uniforms with guns in their holsters will come and cart you off to jail.  If I decide not to contribute to a charity, nothing happens expect maybe that charity suffers from a lack of necessary funds.  But nobody fears being sent to jail for not contributing to a charity.  So first of all, the issue is not about contributing, it’s about raising taxes on those who a few in power decide should pay more.  It’s not about contributing, it’s about higher taxes.

The President has repeatedly quoted Luke 12:48b, “A lot will be expected from everyone who has been given a lot.  More will be demanded from everyone who has been entrusted with a lot.”  The problem is that this quote from Jesus has absolutely nothing to do with economics or business or government.  The Bible is full of wisdom (much to be found especially Psalms and Proverbs of the Old Testament), but the overall message of the Bible is the story of God and his plan of salvation.  Luke 12:48b is a quote from Jesus speaking to his Disciples about sharing the Good News with others.  It’s about using our talents, time, and ability to spread the Gospel of Jesus to the world.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with a government economic policy.

The closest the Bible comes to giving us a picture of a fair and equitable governmental policy is found in the Old Testament in Leviticus 27:30.  It is important to remember that the Israelites lived under a theocracy.  God directly intervened in their lives through his anointed leaders—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  These leaders combined spiritual leadership with governmental leadership.  Frail, sinful humans though they were, they were kept in check directly by God.  God established a means of worship and a means of supporting the Levites who served him in the tabernacle.  And what did God demand as a tithe of all the Israelites rich and poor?  This is what he said in Leviticus 27:30, “One tenth of what comes from the land, whether grain or fruit, is holy and belongs to the Lord.”  The rich man would, of course, pay more because he would have more flocks and grain.  The poor man would pay less, but it was expected that even the poor would participate in the tithe.  There is, of course, no demand by God that the rich man pay more than the 10% he is required to pay or that the poor pay less than the 10% that he too is required to pay.

This is the best Biblical example of what is the best and most equitable way to provide for the needs of government.  But today, 47% of all Americans pay no income taxes.  That is not good for them or for government.  Everyone should pay their fair share no matter how rich or how poor.  Everyone needs to have skin in the game in order to make intelligent and fair decisions on election day that benefit all Americans.  After all, we blessed to live in the greatest, most free, most opportunity filled nation in the history of the world.  Taxing the rich (based on a totally arbitrary decision as to who is rich) at a higher rate is neither fair nor practical.  It is simply foolish.

Everyone should pay the same rate, rich or poor, not only because it is the most fair approach to taxation, but also because it benefits everyone.  It is risk takers who have capital who create jobs (all government jobs drag down the economy, leaching off of those who produce goods and services in the marketplace.)  More than 90%of all private sector jobs in the United States are with small companies.  High taxes on corporations, especially subchapter S corporations (closely held companies where all profit and loss is passed through to the stock holders and all taxes are paid by the stockholder), kill jobs.  It is these people that the “Buffet Tax” is targeting.  By raising taxes on the so-called rich, tax revenues will likely decline because small companies will need to be cautious and cut back, rather than expand.  In addition business failures will increase.  This will reduce tax revenues as even the President has acknowledged. 

The dirty little secret is that every company, big or small, walks along the edge of a financial cliff.  Every company is only a few bad decisions from going out of business.  Seven out of ten new business ventures fail and ultimately all companies will cease to exist—just ask Studebaker, W.T. Grant, Montgomery Ward, American Motors, and Sears.  As John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan proved, while higher corporate taxes kill jobs, lower taxes add jobs.  And the irony is that while Ronald Reagan dramatically reduced tax rates, tax revenues soared (as did contributions to charities).  The Reagan tax cuts not only created a more prosperous nation, where everyone benefited, but it also created a more compassionate nation.  Why then, with this indisputable evidence in hand, is our President hell-bent on raising taxes, especially on those who create jobs?  It shouldn’t be called the “Buffet Rule or the Buffett Tax” rather the “Buffon Tax.” 

If the President and his allies in Congress raise taxes and thus penalize those who risk their capital, work long hours, and offer innovations that improve life to start a company, they will kill the goose that laid the golden egg.  They will kill off new business startups and make it harder for established businesses to survive and grow.  High taxes are not only unfair; they are bad policy that hurts everyone in our economy.  

And while we are at it, if we want to be fair and even handed, let’s stop all government subsidies of individuals and corporations.  Subsidies of companies not only distort the free choices of individual citizens, they encourage corruption (such as Solyndra—“I give you support for your campaign and you arrange for the Department of Energy to give me half a billion dollars.”).  The less government intervention in the marketplace, the less corruption will occur. 

What liberals ignore is the fact that people are going up and down the economic ladder continuously.  Many of those at the lowest level are on their way to the top of the ladder and many at the top are headed down because they made bad choices.  I know a man who made more than $100 million dollars in real estate that gambled once too often and now lives very modestly in a small townhouse.  That’s what freedom is all about—the right to fail and to succeed, the freedom to make your own choices and to live by the consequences.

Obama’s policies aren’t based on fairness, they’re based on resentment, envy, and jealousy.  There’s nothing compassionate or caring about such policies, it’s only greed and bitterness that drive such policies.  And worse for the American people, they do not work.  All such socialist, pie-in-the-sky policies lead to misery for all, and they hurt the weakest members of our society the most.  That’s the history of socialism in the world.  It a perfect, 100% record of failure that is never going to change. 

Maybe the President’s gambit of ignoring the real problems that America faces—financial insolvency, massive unemployment, etc.—and focusing on phony issues like fairness will succeed.  Maybe his bet that the American people are too stupid to figure out that he is a failure will carry the day.  I doubt it.  I would not put any money on that bet in Vegas, would you?

“The Same Old Things That Have Never Worked”

With those words President Obama dismissed free market solutions proposed by Republicans and signaled his support for government imposed solutions to real or imagined problems in our nation. What he really dismissed were individuals like you and me making our own decisions and being personally responsible for our lives. He dismissed individual freedom in favor of a few “enlightened” individuals making decisions for us. His is a belief that a few bureaucrats and politicians can make better decisions than you and I can in regard to our medical care, our retirement needs, what kind of food to eat, what kind of car to drive, and how much money we should earn.

Barack Obama, like countless would-be dictators before him, believes that if only we would let him do what needs to be done without being impeded by the Constitution, he can and will create a new society. He promised to transform America into an equal and just society, one that is radically different than that of the vision of our Founders. Our President is a utopian and he views barriers to his actions such as the rule of law as obstructions to creating his utopian society. As Mark Levin has written in his book, Ameritopia, “A heavenly society is said to be within reach if only the individual surrenders more of his liberty and being for the general good, meaning the good as prescribed by the state. If he refuses, he will be tormented and ultimately coerced into compliance for conformity is essential.”

As the often quoted, yet unknown author wrote, “Free men are not equal and equal men are not free.” Indeed, to insist that all men (and women) are exactly the same—with equal talents, skills, drive, risk-tolerance, and abilities—would be to deny obvious reality. All men are equal in the sight of God and in a free society, they are equal under the law, but otherwise each individual is totally unique. Individuals are not movements or groups or classes or even races—they are distinctive, unique beings created by God. There was never an individual before them, nor will there be someone after them that will be exactly the same as they are.

There are three aspects of American government—the executive branch, the judicial branch and the legislative branch. The executive—our president—is an individual with all the flaws and imperfections of every other man. All he brings to office is his talents, beliefs, and energy. The most important element is his philosophy of government and his understanding of human nature. Everything else is of much lesser importance. If he understands the fallen state of human nature and thus the importance of limiting government power he will succeed. If he looks upon himself as someone whose job it is to engineer the behavior of individual citizens instead of as a public servant who is to humbly serve them and to operate under the law, he will fail his oath of office and fail the trust of the American people. If he seeks to gather more power to himself instead of seeking to give the individual more power, and autonomy he will fail.

Similarly, the legislative branch of government will succeed only if they remain true to the understanding of the Founders view of limited government. If a legislator views himself as a boss instead of a public servant, he will have violated the trust of those who elected him (or her). Each time a legislator seeks to do something for the “people” he is depriving individual citizens of their right to make free choices as to what they want to spend their money on and who they wish to freely donate to. When a legislator seeks to give away money that is not his to enhance his re-election prospects he has himself become corrupted. When he engages in “log rolling,” i.e. agreeing to dole out money for special projects in another Representative’s District in return for that Congressman’s vote for pork spending in his District, he is guilty of dishonesty. Worse yet, his actions run totally counter to the vision of the Founders who sought citizen legislators who sacrificed to serve their fellow man and who scrupulously sought to live by both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.To do otherwise a Representative serves no one but himself.

A judiciary who views themselves as more than arbitrators of determining right and wrong and the Constitutionality of issues before them has gone beyond their Constitutional mandate. They have become unelected super legislators who re-write legislation and find new unwritten meaning in existing laws. When they issue edicts of taxation they have become potentates who have done violence to the Constitution itself. Those judges who substitute their own views for the law and rely on laws outside the United States have broken their oath of office.

All three branches of government are subject to corruption as all men are subject to corruption. That is the reason the Founders sought to limit the power of government over the lives of individual citizens. When left to their own devices, and given vast power, men will always seek to gain power over the lives of others and to enrich themselves.

Government is and always will be a dangerous public institution. The more power government has, the more your freedom and mine is in danger. And the more involvement government has in the economic sphere, the less fair and honest and productive the economy will be. There is no possible way or reason for you and I to believe that a few men and women in government, in any branch, can make economic decisions affecting our lives better than we can.

The free market is the most fair, the most just, the least corruptible segment of our society when government does not interfere. It is not perfect, but it is far, far more fair and just than any branch of government can ever be. The President is subject to his own failings and shortcomings and he is just one person who cannot possibly weigh fairly and make just decisions affecting every American in a positive way. The less influence he and the bureaucracy of government have over your life and over the lives of all Americans, the more fair, just and mutually beneficial economic choices will be.

Congress is only slightly more fair in its makeup and decision making process than the President. At its worst it is a mobocracy that acts in a self-serving, emotional manner, substituting its limited knowledge and views for the millions of independent choices that responsible American citizens make each day. Democracy is never as fair and just as the free market. Just 51% of the votes by flawed legislators is not an equitable substitute for the free market.

What is the free market? It is simply tens of millions of individual citizens making free choices how and when to spend their money, how and when to save their money, and how and when to give their money to others free of interference from government. That is a true free market. The opposite of a free market is government interference in the form of subsidies, regulations and taxes taking money from its citizens. When a relatively few politicians and bureaucrats make decisions how and when to spend your money instead of you making those decisions fairness, honesty, and productivity are not served. It’s no more complicated than that.

Tyrannical rule by a judiciary is even worse than decisions made by a legislature. In that case a few un-elected officials appointed by politicians, who too often have no commitment or understanding of the Constitution, make laws instead of ruling on the meaning of those laws. When judges seek to engineer social objectives that they believe to be good, they have gone outside the law. Such actions are nothing less than tyranny of the Court and they punish all Americans.

When President Obama derides free market solutions by saying that we want to “…try the same old things that have never worked before” he is simply ignorant of economic reality. Only freedom works. In fact, statism—rule by a few—has never worked. Socialism has and always will be a dismal failure. Social engineering schemes like Social Security and Medicare and Obamacare always fail. They are financially unsustainable structures as are all socialist ventures. Politicians love to create socialist institutions that make millions of voters dependent upon them for their needs of retirement and of health care. Such institutions fail to provide security, provide low quality services, and diminish your individual freedom. And the more dependent voters are, the more they can be manipulated and coerced into giving away even more of their hard won liberty.

The more independent and self-reliant and God fearing voters are, the more they will cling to liberty and eschew reliance on government. Such voters realize that government cannot guarantee anything. Any institution that takes from you to give back to you will always disappoint. God-fearing Americans know that security only comes from God and that any human construction is subject to failure.

Freedom has a foundation. Free societies exist only when there is a consensus of faith in God. The United States of America is not a Christian nation if Christian nation means the official church of the nation. That’s what the nations of Europe are where there is a state church. Today Europe is comprised of very secular states even though they are officially Christian nations. In stark contrast, the United States still has a large and strong group of Christians who strive to live their faith. It is the faith of millions of American Christians that creates and sustains a national consensus of traditional moral values. The weaker that consensus becomes, the more tenuous the commitment to the moral values of our Founders. When the moral foundation of a nation crumbles, self-restraint declines. The fact is that Faith is necessary to the exercise of self-restraint. One cannot believe in God and seek to follow him without striving to emulate Christ. That kind of self-restraint is absolutely essential to the creation of a free society. Without self-restraint, freedom turns into license and license devolves into chaos. At that point, the intervention of government power is necessary to restore order, but as government power grows, individual freedom dies.

Individual freedom cannot exist without economic freedom—your right to decide how to spend and donate your money, your right to choose what to buy and whom to buy it from, your right to offer for sale your goods and services at whatever price and in whatever form that you believe will be attractive to other free citizens. Our President has it backwards. Socialism is and always will be a dead end road to economic misery, inequality, and servitude. Economic freedom is the proven path to prosperity which offers hope and opportunity to every American. It is the American dream in action.

Easter?

Easter—what’s the big deal? It’s just another Sunday. It’s just some sort of religious event. It’s what those Christians celebrate. So what’s the big deal? I don’t go to church, I believe in God, but for me and for my generation, I just don’t see church going or the Easter celebration as a big thing. I’ve got lots going on in my life and there are lots of things that I find more interesting or worthwhile than going to church, even on Easter. It’s just not a big deal to me as it was to my parents or to other folks. If going to church works for them, fine, but it’s not what I’m looking for. In fact, it seems kind of old fashioned to me. After all, this is modern society and thanks to science we have more knowledge of things today than ever before. We are the most informed, most knowledgeable generation in the history of the world. The Bible may be a nice book and all that, but my facts come from science and my reality is my friends, my family, and my job. C'est la vie, as the French say.

Really? Is that all there is to life, to your life? It’s just the here and now that count? Your purpose is just to live life day by day without any thought to why you might be here or what will happen to you after your short life is over. Yes, I said short life. When you get to be 68 years old, as I am, you realize just how short life really is. You also begin to understand how all those things you thought to be important, like living for the here and now and gaining possessions, are so unimportant. Of course you cherish your family and your friends, but you are still an individual, a person who will live his or her 70 or 80 or 90 or even 100 years and then you will die. In fact, you will, in the earthly sense, be dead forever. Those 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years aren’t much compared with eternity.

Eternity, that’s what Easter is about. It’s about where you will spend eternity. For all the scientific achievements that man has accomplished, he cannot create life. In fact, he can’t even come within a country mile of creating life. And any fool knows there is always a starting point. There is a beginning. God and the book he inspired, the Bible, is all about that beginning. It provides answers for the reason for life, your life. Rather than live a shallow existence for the here and now, God provides us with a real purpose for our life. Man brags about his intelligence and his accomplishments. God offers wisdom, hope and love. Intelligence is not wisdom and cold science is a far cry from hope and love.

The Bible is a fascinating book. It reveals the story of the creation of life by God. It’s a story of the fall of man, who sought to be like God, and a love so great that God created a plan to reconcile himself to fallen, sinful man. It was a costly, painful plan that God executed. He sent his own Son, Jesus, to live a humble life on this earth and to do it without sin. The God who created life and created the universe loved us and loves us so much that he was willing to lower himself to be one of us so that he could save us from our own folly. Science advances, but human nature does not. One would have to be blind to look around the world, or even into our own hearts and believe that we are perfect, without sin. What silliness. The great King David of the Old Testament wrote in Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” In fact, all the great leaders of the Old Testament—Abraham, Moses, David, were guilty of great, public sins. These were the men that God personally chose to lead his people and yet they were great sinners—guilty of lying, of killing, of adultery and much more. And then when Jesus came he hung out with prostitutes, tax cheats, and those who comprised the underbelly of society. What is the message here?

God’s message, the message that we need to understand is that everyone, from kings and presidents to those in jail suffer from the same affliction—sin. As “wise” King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7:20, “Certainly, there is no one so righteous on earth that he always does what is good and never sins.” This is the critical understanding of the Bible. It runs throughout the Old and New Testaments. As Paul said in Romans 3:23, “Because all people have sinned, they have fallen short of God's glory.” Only a fool would believe that he is somehow better than every other human being ever born, that he is without sin. It is only by God’s grace that we can and are rescued from our sins.

And this brings us to the importance of Easter and its meaning for you and for your life. Beginning with Adam all men (and women) rebelled from God. They rejected him and that’s where all our troubles began. They sinned and they passed their sinful ways along to you and me. We took the wrong path and there would be no hope for you and me without God’s plan of reconciliation. By Jesus living that perfect life that you and I are incapable of, and by his painful death of the cross where the innocent died for the guilty, he gives us hope of recapturing the perfection of the Garden of Eden. He took my sins and your sins on Himself so that we don’t have to live without hope, but can rather look forward to death as the gateway to a perfect life that is far, far beyond any pleasure or joy that we have on this earth. It won’t last 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years, it will last forever. Its value is priceless. And we know we have the guarantee of living forever with the Lord because Jesus rose in triumph over death on Easter Sunday. That’s the important meaning of Easter.

It’s not just another Sunday or just another day of the week. It is a commemoration of the greatest event that ever took place in the history of the world. It illuminates the meaning of life. It clarifies everything.

Here we are focusing on our few years on this earth, but if we don’t pay any attention to the eternity we will spend on the other side of our passage through death, we will have missed the entire story. Don’t miss the full story. Fill your life with hope and joy and purpose by embracing the wonderful message of Jesus this Easter. That’s my prayer for you.

My wife, Kathi, and I wish you and yours a wonderful, joyous Easter celebration.

Of Turkeys and Integrity

On Tuesday, March 13 many newspapers led with a headline similar to that printed in The Washington Times—“Justice Halts Voter ID Requirement in Texas.” Citing a belief that the law was unfairly and illegally targeting Hispanics with the intent of suppressing their vote, the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department blocked Texas’ new photo identification requirement for voting. The case, along with a similar case in South Carolina, now moves to adjudication before the Federal Courts. Most, but not all, Democrats oppose taking steps to protect the integrity of the voting process by states requiring photo identification cards, even if those cards are available for free. These laws already exist in a number of states like Indiana. The Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department has no power over Indiana because Indiana is not covered by the Civil Rights Act, but both Texas and South Carolina are covered by that act.

Those Democrats that oppose such efforts to true the vote claim that it is an attempt to harken back to the bad days of Jim Crow and poll taxes. They say it is a racist effort to suppress the minority vote. They call supporters racists.

The truth of the matter is that the national Democrat machine (that bears a strange resemblance to the Chicago Daly machine) opposes photo voter ID cards because it makes it much harder to steal elections. In the presidential election of 1960 both Illinois and Missouri went for John F. Kennedy by razor thin margins. It is now widely known that these razor thin margins were provided by voter theft in Cook County Illinois and Saint Louis County Missouri. Had there been an accurate vote count in both states, Richard Nixon would have been president, but election fraud made it possible for John F. Kennedy to serve instead. Voter theft is a reality, but it should never be accepted as the norm.

There is only one reason to oppose steps to protect the integrity of the election process and that reason is to encourage voter fraud. As J. Christian Adams documents in his book, Injustice, the Civil Rights Division of the United States Justice Department is an active participant in discouraging the integrity of the vote. The Civil Rights Division of the DOJ is not only full of radical activist attorneys, but they also lack integrity and competence, according to Adams.

The Washington Times wrote of the decision to block the new Texas voter protection law, “Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said he was using the federal government’s power under the Voting Rights Act to block the state’s law.” Who is Thomas Perez? He is the same person who blocked prosecution of the New Black Panthers who intimidated voters outside a voting booth in Philadelphia, by carrying a heavy baton and verbally threatening white voters. The intimidation was documented by FOX News on video tape, so there was no doubt of the intimidation of white voters by these men dressed in combat fatigues. The case was dismissed by the DOJ after these same men who were charged with a civil rights violation by the Bush DOJ and did not show up for the trial. The only step necessary to convict was to ask for a judgment against them, but instead Thomas Perez dismissed the case. Why did he dismiss a clear cut case of voter intimidation that only required a simple motion for conviction?

Here is what happened according to first hand witness, J. Christian Adams…

“Tom Perez would make the argument explicitly, testifying to the Civil Rights Commission that Rule 11 and similar local court rules mandated the case be dismissed. This was a direct attack on the four lawyers on the case, for Rule 11 is an ethical obligation that attorneys don’t bring frivolous claims.”

In other words, his argument, according to Adams, was that the action by the DOJ under Bush to convict the New Black Panthers of voter intimidation was a frivolous case. This is the slanted mindset of Tom Perez who has arranged for the DOJ to sue South Carolina and Texas in an attempt to block implementation of a voter fraud law that will require all voters to show a government issued photo ID in order to vote.

The truth is, as Adams documents, that the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ simply doesn’t care about the integrity of the vote, they only care about advancing their radical left agenda.

Adams relates in his book the approach the radicalized Civil Rights Division of the DOJ proclaimed in regard to Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act which requires that ineligible and dead voters be purged from the voter rolls in each state.

“…I was present at a brown bag luncheon for the Voting Section in November 2009 when Deputy assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes glibly proclaimed that the DOJ would no longer enforce Section 8.

Why?

Fernandez answer was that such enforcement would create a “barrier to the ballot box.”

A more accurate and honest answer would have been that such enforcement would have made it much more difficult to commit voter fraud and steal the upcoming election. Adams continues, “Ironically, her instructions to enforce some laws but not others were precisely what Obama, his current Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez…had accused the Bush DOJ of doing…”

Adams book documents many more cases of ignoring laws that do not fit into the radical agenda of the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department as well as clear evidence of attorneys in the Division ignoring the law and allowing corruption of the voting process.

Sadly those in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ have absolutely no commitment to honesty, fairness, and equal justice under the law. They do not have the character or the integrity to attempt to enforce the law equally and fairly across the board and to adhere to the laws as written.

The current attempt to block Texas and other states from ensuring the integrity of the ballot box is contemptible. The reality is that the actions of the DOJ subvert the rule of law and encourage voter fraud.

Today you must have to have a valid photo ID card to buy cigarettes, to purchase liquor, to get food stamps, to obtain over-the-counter drugs such as Sudafed, and to cash a check. It doesn’t have to be a driver’s license. It can be any government issued photo identification card and virtually all individuals that have reached the age of majority have one. If they don’t have one, they can get one for free from their state.

Even the liberals know the importance of photo identification and the fact that every citizen has access to one. Ward 9 Councilman and former Mayor of the District of Columbia, Marion Barry, gives away free turkeys at Thanksgiving to his constituents. Guess what the good Councilman requires turkey recipients to provide before he gives them a turkey for Thanksgiving? You guessed it, a government issued photo ID.

The attempt to protect the integrity of the vote is being thwarted by corrupt politicians and government appointees who fear that an honest vote will not provide the political outcome they seek. It is rank hypocrisy that encourages voter fraud. Fairly losing an election is one thing. Stealing an election is a direct attack on the democratic process. Hopefully, federal judges will force a return to the law and away from the selective enforcement of the law. Banana republics, Hugo Chavez, and Vladimir Putin rely on voter theft to maintain power, but Americans should be able to count on fairness, honesty and the rule of law to preserve our Republic.

Oil: The Key to American Prosperity Today and Tomorrow

President Obama likes to go around and brag about the fact that oil and gas production are up under his presidency. It’s a half truth. Yes, oil and gas production are higher than in the last Administration, but it’s in spite of President Obama and his Secretary of [Less] Energy, Dr. Steven Chu. While oil and gas production are up overall, the fact is that oil and gas production in areas over which the President has control, i.e. offshore and on federal lands, is down 14%. It is only on private lands where the Presidenthas limited power to stop oil and gas production that production is up. And even there, he is doing his best to stop the explosion in oil and gas production through fracking. While the President touts the fact that oil and gas production are up, his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is suing to stop oil and gas production through fracking. To add icing on the cake,he has blocked the Keystone pipeline, reducing American’s access to oil even further. Three times the Keystone pipeline has been vetted and approved for construction, passing all environmental hurdles, but still the President blocks its construction. Whether it is because he wants to reduce oil supplies and raise gas prices as he has previously stated on the record or whether it is to appease his radical environmental allies in an election year, the result is the same. All Americans suffer and those at the bottom of the economic ladder suffer the most.

Dr. Chu has said that he wants the price of gasoline and diesel to climb to European rates of $8 or more per gallon. If that happens it will sound the death knell of American prosperity. Green energy is a liberal fantasy. It’s not a market product and neither it nor oil deserve subsidies. Subsidies only punish the consumer and force him or her to buy products and services they don’t freely choose or to pay higher than market rates for the products and services they want.

Let me add one quick aside in regard to subsidies. In Washington speak reducing an increase in spending is a spending cut. Similarly, tax breaks are now subsidies. In fact, those in government incorrectly refer to tax deductions for your contributions to charity as government subsidies. The implication of that kind of thinking is nothing less than dangerous. The clear implication is that all wealth belongs to the government. Just as a reduction in an increase is not a cut (it’s still an increase), and a reduction in taxes is not a subsidy, it is just less taxes being paid. A subsidy is a cash payment by government to a corporation. There is no other accurate and honest definition. So be wary of news articles about cuts and subsidies.

Now, let’s move on to liberal fantasies about energy. What is it with liberals? They think that by passing a law they can force the scientific development of new fuels and energy sources that would not otherwise occur in the free market. They are living in a dream world. Passing such laws (and they do it frequently) not only displays their engineering and scientific ignorance, they make as much sense as passing a law repealing the law of gravity.

Higher oil prices mean higher gasoline, diesel and heating fuel prices. Such price raises punish all Americans, especially the young and the poor. Higher oil prices mean that you will pay more for the milk you drink, the chicken you eat, the vegetables you buy, and the frozen foods you purchase. Higher oil prices mean that you will pay more for the clothes you wear, the hardware you buy at Home Depot, and the items you purchase at each and every store. Transportation costs are a major contributor to the price of all goods you purchase. So raising the price of gasoline by suffocating the production of oil and gas doesn’t just affect your bill at the pump, it affects every aspect of our economy. In addition, it curtails the freedom that Henry Ford gave Americans when he developed the mass production of automobiles. While there were at one point more than 400 American manufacturers of automobiles, none produced an automobile that was within the reach of the average American until Henry Ford came along. He didn’t invent the automobile, he invented the process of mass production that brought the Model T Ford within the reach of virtually every American. And, in doing so, he paid the highest wages in America. At one point an American could purchase a running Model T Ford for under $150. The free market drove Henry Ford to find a way to place automobiles within the reach of all Americans. It is only through the free market that we will find other energy sources at competitive prices. Subsidies are a fools game that solve nothing and reduce the standard of living of all Americans.

Sadly, today’s liberals have no respect for average Americans and they don’t care about individual freedom for Americans. Frankly they look down their nose at the hard working, church going, stand up American who loves his nation. They really believe (like Rousseau, Hitler, Lenin and Mao before them) that a chosen few can make better decisions about what you should wear, what you should eat, what you should drive, and even what you should believe than you do. They actually believe that a few really smart (but sadly not necessarily wise) people can make better decisions than tens of millions of Americans about what to buy, where to buy it, what to pay for it, where to live, and what to drive than they can. It’s a mind boggling concept that has been tried over and over and over again without success throughout history, but liberals still cling to the fantasy that if only they have more power they will create a more fair and more just society where everyone will prosper. In reality what happens when any collection of sinful, frail human beings have more power is more corruption, less prosperity, and less freedom for all. It’s what the Founders understood and what they tried to guard against the most when they wrote the United States Constitution.

The core source of theliberals intent to raise gasoline prices, diesel prices and force Americans to ride mass transit and live in ant hills springs from their love affair with European socialism. They see themselves as the benign wielders of more and more power over your lives for the good of the people. Autocrats throughout history have portrayed themselves as the defenders of the people, while taking more and more power from individuals and making their lives more miserable. Constricting our energy supplies is, as they would say, being done for our own good. They may even believe it, but you and I know better.

Oil is the key to American prosperity today and tomorrow. Oil and gas fracking have placed energy independence and inexpensive fuel within our reach if Obama and the government will just get out of the way. Newt Gingrich says we can get gasoline prices down to $2.50 per gallon, but even Newt is understating the opportunity that we have as Americans. If we open up public lands to oil and gas exploration (and yes, it can be done without damaging the environment) there is no reason that gasoline prices should not fall to less than $1.50 per gallon.

Opening up the production of oil will not only lower energy prices, it will create millions and millions of new, high-paying blue collar and white collar jobs. It should be something the unions are four square behind. And in fairness, they do support the Keystone oil pipeline, but their blind allegiance to Obama and his radical policies hamstrings them from becoming true allies of prosperity. The public unions now dwarf the power and size of unions in the private economy. They call the shots and with the government types ideology comes first.

Economist Steven Moore, writing in the Wall Street Journal, put it plainly: “…President Barack Obama insisted that ‘we can't just drill our way out of’ our energy woes. Actually, we can…” In his article, Mr. Moore draws a comparison between California, a state that used to be one of the nation’s top producers of oil, and upstart North Dakota that has embraced oil production through the fracking process. While the Democrats in California have destroyed a once prosperous state, North Dakota has become a powerful and prosperous state with budget surpluses, high paying jobs, and a bright economic future. For example, Willston, North Dakota has become the oil boom capital of the United States. This once sleepy town of less than 15,000 has doubled in size. There is a housing shortage, and the unemployment rate in North Dakota is 3.3%. McDonalds is not only paying $18 per hour for starting jobs, but even offering a starting bonus. The Bakken Field in North Dakota may contain as much as 40 million barrels of oil. The Marcellus Shale deposit covers roughly 60% of Pennsylvania and extends into New York, Maryland and other Eastern Seaboard states. To put it quite simply the United States has more than 100 years of known oil and gas reserves. That is just known reserves. Who knows how much more oil and gas deposits are still out there?It’s an unknown. It was initially thought that the Bakken oil field might have up to 4 billion gallons of oil, but the estimate has grown to about 10 times the original estimate and just recently they discovered new shale deposits at a lower depth. North Dakota alone now has more known and recoverable oil reserves than Saudi Arabia. California in contrast has choked off access to known oil reserves and soon, very soon they will be asking the federal government to bail them out. California will be the new Greece, but ten times worse. It’s all caused by reckless spending, and bad choices like shutting off access to oil and gas production.

The Bakken field is the primary reason oil and gas production has grown over the past few years, frankly to the chagrin of our President and the anti-scientific, self-styled intellectuals in his Party. Russia has truly vast oil and gas resources, but today our reserves are nearly as vast as all of Russia. By exploiting these reserves, drilling off the East Coast, expanding drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and opening up just ten square acres in the ANWR region of Alaska the United States can become energy independent and prosperous in just a few short years. It’s all within our reach if the politicians and the federal government will just get out of our way.

Sadly, it’s the last thing President Obama wants. He has been brainwashed by out of touch, out of reality Marxist professors who have convinced him that the free market doesn’t work. The free market and the law of supply and demand is just as valid as the law of gravity, yet, for ideological reasons this president rejects that reality. He suffers from the delusion that American prosperity has been gained off the backs of the poor and minorities both here at home and around the globe. He rejects the idea that America is or ever was a special nation blessed by God. He scoffs at the idea of American exceptionalism and at the idea of the United States as the land of opportunity where any American can go as far and high as his talents, hard work, and God’s blessing take him.

Turn on the oil spigot Mr. President! Open up your eyes and your mind to the greatness of America. Quit punishing the young and the poor because you are captive of a strange and radical ideology that seeks for America to become less than it has been in the past and that it can be in the future. Make this the land of opportunity again by getting out of the way of free people making free decisions about how they want to run their own lives. Quite kicking away the ladder of opportunity for the poor and minorities who wish to share in the American dream.

Come on Mr. President! Wake up and smell the roses. Give thanks for being born an American. Provide proud leadership of the greatest nation in the history of the world. Let the world know that America’s best days are yet ahead of us. Embrace liberty and freedom for all Americans and rejoice in the genius of the American free enterprise system that has provided more opportunity and more prosperity to more people than any other system in the history of the world. Marvel at the generosity of the American people and their noble character. You are a young man who has been greatly blessed by those who founded this nation and those who came after. Get back on track or go down to ignominious defeat as a failed president.

It’s your choice. Either lead or get out of the way. Americans are an independent people who cherish their freedom. They don’t suffer fools in public office lightly. You have driven our nation into the ditch. It’s time to return to proven values and proven principles as enumerated by our Founders or else it’s time for someone else to drive. What will it be Mr. President?

Of Sluts, Apologies, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech and Shame

My, my, my, what a tangled, convoluted, public discussion we are having today about a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. It reminds me of stream of consciousness rambling by people we have all encountered. They start talking about one topic, meander through a few more topics and end at a point so distant from the original subject that you have no inkling how to respond.

If you can possibly recall, this discussion started with Obamacare and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issuing a ruling that all institutions that provide health insurance must pay for contraceptives. This ruling infringes on freedom of religion in the United States and violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution that reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

When the federal government tells a Christian College that its medical insurance coverage must include paying for the cost of contraceptives for unmarried women, it is prohibiting the free exercise to religious beliefs. It is telling that College or other religious institution that it must violate what it believes to be immoral, i.e. sex outside of marriage. It is telling Christian business owners that they must violate their religious beliefs.

Because Obamacaremandates participating in Obamacare by all institutions, businesses and individuals (another Constitutionally questionable endeavor which shall not be discussed here) it now insists that the First Amendment of the US Constitution be ignored. In short, the government is demanding that religious individuals and organizations must violate theirbelief in a higher law, God’s Seventh Commandment…

You shall not commit adultery.

This is the issue at stake. President Obama, who recently reiterated his allegiance to Christianity at the National Prayer Day, is insisting that the Obamacare law takes precedence over the United States Constitution.

This should be the end of the story. But, it’s not.

When the Catholic Church and Christians all across America rose up in righteous outrage over this infringement on their rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, the Democrats and the White House realized they were in trouble, deep political trouble. They had made a major miscalculation.

What to do? What to do? The solution, change the narrative? Fuzz the issue. And, of course, blame the Republicans.

On February 16, 2012, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the contraceptives mandate by Secretary Sebelius. The Democrats were allowed to provide witnesses and they scheduled one to give testimony. However, at the last moment they withdrew that person from testifying and asked that Sandra Fluke testify. The first witness had been fully vetted in regard to his expertise, a typical process for Committee witnesses. Sandra Fluke could not be vetted in time to testify, so Congressman Darrel Issa, Chairman of the Committee denied her the opportunity to provide testimony and she did not testify.

The Committee hearing was largely ignored by the news media because they did not wish to highlight the fact that the Obama Administration had trampled on the First Amendment. Since the Democrats were unsuccessful in having Sandra Fluke testify, they decided to hold a rump Committee hearing. Essentially it was a staged political event which was, of course, widely covered by the compliant news media.

It was at this sham Committee hearing that Sandra Fluke spoke. To use the word testify would be to greatly stretch the concept of testimony. Congressional hearings require that those who testify provide first hand, personal testimony, and are not allowed to provide hearsay reporting. But that, of course, is what Sandra Fluke did as we now know.

Who is Sandra Fluke and why, if she wanted free birth control, did she seek out a Georgetown University Law School, a prominent Catholic institution? The answer is that this 30 year old has a long record of radical left activism. Ms. Fluke served as President of “Students for Reproductive Justice” and according to Cathy Ruse, former Chief Counsel of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, “…made it her mission to get the school to give up one of the last remnants of its Catholicism.” Ms. Fluke’s “testimony” before this sham Committee was a political speech at best and had absolutely nothing to do with the question as to whether the ruling by Kathleen Sebelius was Constitutional or unconstitutional. It was in short a political stunt and her “facts” turned out to be less than accurate. But, of course, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CBS, ABC, NBC accepted her statements without questioning the accuracy of her statements. Ms. Fluke complained that having to buy your own contraceptives was too great a burden on her and her many (unidentified) women friends, costing them $3,000 over the three years of law school. Just for the record, a quick investigation by the folks at The Weekly Standarddetermined that the cost of a popular contraceptive at a drugstore near the Georgetown University campus was $297, less than 10% of the amount cited by Ms. Fluke. But again, what does the cost of condoms have to do with the Constitutionality of Kathleen Sebelius issuing a regulation that all religious institutions pay for something that they deem to be immoral. That is still the point of this discussion that the left wing media dutifully ignore.

At this point the story becomes even more bizarre. Normally Rush Limbaugh is quite eloquent and artfully crystalizes issues, i.e. the Constitutionality of the Sebelius ruling. However, in this case, Rush’s eloquencefailed him. When I listened to him discuss the bogus Democratic hearing at which Ms. Fluke spoke, he ran off the rails. I knew it at the time. It’s OK for Ed Shultz at CNN to call conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham a “slut” but the same rules don’t apply to conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh. In fact, Rush was wrong when he called Ms. Fluke a prostitute. There is no evidence or reason to believe that she sold herself to make money. Rush was just plain wrong and he gave aid to the Democrats in taking this discussion far, far away from the topic which is whether the Sebelius ruling violated the First Amendment of the Constitution. I apologize for keep repeating the issue, but this story has so many twists and turns that it’s easy to get lost.

As to whether Ms. Fluke is a slut, who knows? A slut is a woman of low character who is sexually promiscuous according to my dictionary. Frankly, I think it’s likely that she would meet that definition, but I don’t have any proof that is the fact. Call me old school, but I do find it shocking that an unmarried woman would talk openly of her adulterous activities, even complaining that someone else should be paying for her immoral behavior. Bill Bennett has bemoaned the fact that today there is no shame in America. He is, of course, right. God’s Ten Commandments have been replaced by a secular code that boils down to, if it feels good, do it. This code of relativistic values is a cancer on our nation. It has destroyed marriages, broken up families, sentenced children to lifelong poverty, encouraged disrespect for the law, coarsened our society, and undermined our public institutions.

Sadly, it was just a quick hop, skip and a jump by President Obama from speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast and calling Ms. Fluke and then holding her up as an female icon for our nation. How embarrassing that the President of the United States and a self-identified Christian would encourage and defend the behavior of a young woman who lives an openly adulterous life? Is this the kind of character we want as the President of the United States? But, of course, the President acted because it was good politics and took the discussion further off the issue as to whether the Obamacare ruling by Kathleen Sebelius violated the First Amendment of the Constitution which is the issue at hand.

But let’s keep this stream of consciousness public discussion going, shall we? Now the issue is, according to the mainstream media and the Democrats, about whether Rush Limbaugh should be thrown off the air. Calls have been made to stations, to advertisers, and petitions signed demanding that Rush not only apologize, but be thrown off the air. Well, I can’t see into Rush’s heart, but I am, as a Christian, required to take his apology at face value. It wasn’t one of those “I’m sorry that you are offended by what I said” fake apologies you hear so often from politicians.

The essence of Christianity is about forgiveness, not retribution, not getting even. Yes, God is a just God and he can’t let us into heaven as unjust human beings, but he executed a plan to have his son Jesus(who lived a perfect life)take all our sins on himself, so that he could impugn righteousness to us. It’s not that Christians don’t sin and even do the same things that Ms. Fluke says she does. It’s the fact that they know such activities are wrong and ask God for forgiveness and more importantly, receive forgiveness.

But now I’m getting far off the topic which is whether or not the ruling by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is Constitutional. It’s the last thing the media wants to talk about. The last thing the Democratic Party wants to talk about. And certainly the last thing President Obama wants to talk about. So they won’t because there is no integrity left in the mainstream news media.

All I ask is that the next time you hear the name Sandra Fluke you think about one thing and one thing only—the total disregard for the United States Constitution by the Administration of President Barack Obama.

Stark Contrast

The 2012 election offers a stark contrast in political philosophies, the same stark contrast that existed between the vision of the Founders and that of the British monarchy at the time of the American Revolution—more government and less individual freedom versus less government and more individual freedom. Today’s Republican Party stands for limited Constitutional government and maximum individual freedom, and today’s Democratic Party under the leadership of President Barack Obama stands for more government and less freedom. That is the bottom line choice of the 2012 elections and the ramifications of the choice that will be made by the voters in November will decide if the United States of America will return to its roots of limited government, or whether we will continue down the road to more and more government that leads inevitably to tyranny.

The election is not about which candidate is nicer or kinder or works harder, but about the philosophy of that presidential candidate and indeed all candidates for federal office. It should not need to be said that expanding the role of government means less individual freedom, because for more than 150 years Americans learned about the priceless principles of America’s Founders. Sadly, that is no longer true today. Our children’s history text books, teachers, and professors simply do not tell the truth about the history of America or the principles of our Founders. The Founders are pictured as privileged few who created a society that benefited them at the expense of others. Great American leaders like Washington, Adams, Coolidge and Reagan are mocked, while those who have expanded government and reduced individual freedom like Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Obama are praised.

President Obama dismisses the idea of America as an exceptional nation because he does not believe it. He sees America as just another nation that has prospered due to luck and the belief that prosperity was gained through the oppression of minorities and by exploiting the wealth of other nations. He cannot explain why millions and millions around the globe wish to become Americans. He ignores the fact that the flow of illegal immigrants comes from the South to the North into the United States rather from the US to Latin America. Our President rejects the idea that America is the land of opportunity and that every American has the opportunity to succeed or fail based on his hard work and the blessings he receives from God. Obama simply does not understand what US Senator Jim DeMint understands about the history of our nation when he writes in his book, “Now or Never”…

“The American vision was founded in the Judeo-Christian belief that mankind is inherently sinful and must be constrained internally by a fear of God and externally…by societal incentives that motivate people to improve themselves and serve the common good. The secular European vision was founded on the belief that mankind is inherently good and perfectible if society is properly planned and managed.”

This is the dividing line between today’s liberals in the Democratic Party and conservative leaders in the Republican Party. One direction leads to a return to the values and principles of the Founders who created the United States of America and the other direction leads to a collectivist state where our lives are and our wealth become tools of the liberal elite.

The implications of this choice are truly dramatic.

The means of control over our lives are more government regulations and higher taxes. Unbelievably some argue that you can have more regulations and greater freedom. Some argue that Socialism is not incompatible with individual freedom. It would be easy to laugh at such silly arguments were it not for the fact that millions and millions of Americans have been brainwashed into believing such irrational nonsense in our schools and via our left wing news media. It’s not that the young people in our schools aren’t just as smart at previous generations or that men and women who get their news from the major news sources aren’t intelligent. It has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence; it has everything to do with wisdom. It is, as the late William F. Buckley, Jr. said, “It’s not that they aren’t smart, it’s just that so much of what they know isn’t true.” That’s a kind way of saying that Americans have been lied to over and over and over again.

The 2012 choice is between government spending within its means and taking a minimum of dollars from Americans, a sure and steady path to prosperity, stability, and a better future for our children and grandchildren, and government continuing to spend money we don’t have that will burden our children and grandchildren for decades to come. No family or nation ever spent its way into prosperity. No nation ever survived without a strong, stable currency.

The 2012 choice is between traditional moral values as personified in the Ten Commandments, and the new morality that has brought about broken homes, shattered marriages, a more coarse and violent society. The attacks on Christianity and freedom of religion have their origin in the rejection of moral values that oppose sex outside of marriage, faith in God as the creator and ruler of the universe, the killing of babies and virtually any activity that gives pleasure to the doer, regardless of the consequences. After all, it was Illinois State Senator Barack Obama that strongly supported legislation that provided for a second doctor to be called in to finish the job if an abortion was botched (i.e. the baby was born alive). In the liberals universe abortions and death panels are simply tools to cull out the people who may burden society unnecessarily. They not only reject an all-powerful, almighty and loving God, they seek to be Gods themselves, just as the Devil promised in the Garden of Eden.

The 2012 choice is between addressing manufactured counterfeit crises designed to increase the role of government in your life (obesity, climate change, health care, etc.) and the real crisis of financial collapse and moral implosion. Liberals twist and distort science to achieve their goals of more control over our lives. For liberals, climate change is a holy doctrine that all Americans must bow to even though the science does not support their outrageous claims. They ignore the fact that Americans have a longer lifespan than virtually any other country in the world, demanding that we eat what they deem appropriate. They scream health crisis even though health care in the United States is far better than any other place in the world. They ignore the reality that their spending has created a debt that is unsustainable, demanding even more deficit spending that puts our nation at the mercy of creditors like Communist China.

The 2012 choice is between a president who understands that his role as Commander and Chief means protecting the United States from foreign enemies, and one who believes that the United States is responsible for all the problems in the world and if we will only apologize and unilaterally disarm, we will have peace. It’s a choice between a president who believes in peace through strength and one who thinks the road to peace depends on the weakness of America. One road leads to a secure America, the other leads to more wars, and more attacks like 9/11.

Which direction will American voters take in 2012? Will they return to the Founders principles of limited Constitutional government built upon a foundation of faith and an understanding of human nature, or will we take the road that leads to collectivism? Will the torch of American freedom continue to burn bright as a beacon to the world, or will it be extinguished by an alluring attachment to a false utopia?

The victory of the tiny thirteen colonies over the most powerful nation in the world can be explained only as a miracle of God. There is no other cogent explanation. Our Founders put their faith in God and although their earthly might was negligible, they triumphed, risking all—their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Since that beginning, Americans have faced threat after threat—from other nations, from the cancer of slavery, from the Soviet Union, and yet we have been preserved and sustained as we turned to God for help. This crisis, this election will determine if future generations live in freedom or as slaves to the state. The generations that preceded us fought to save America and were not found wanting. Can we be counted on to do the same? We will learn the answer to that question on November 6, 2012.